WOOL 

THE  WORLD'S  COMFORTER 


WOOL 

THE  WORLD'S  COMFORTER 


A  SURVEY  OF  THE  WOOL  INDUSTRY  FROM  THE 
RAW  MATERIAL  TO  THE  FINISHED  PRODUCT, 
INCLUDING    DESCRIPTIONS    OF    MANU- 
FACTURING   AND    MARKETING 
METHODS    AND    A    DICTION- 
ARY OF  WOOL  FABRICS 


By 

W.  D.  DARBY 


NEW     YORK 
DRY      GOODS          ECONOMIST 

TWO   THIRTY-NINE   WEST  THIRTY-NINTH    STREET 
1922 


COPYRIGHT,  1922 
DRY  GOODS  ECONOMIST 


FEDERAL  PRINTING  Co.,  NEW  YORK 
1922 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

AN    INTRODUCTION.      By    Ernest    C.    Hastings,    Managing 
Editor,  Dry  Goods  Economist 6 

CHAPTER        I — HISTORY  OF  WOOL 7 

CHAPTER       II — HISTORY  OF  WOOL  MANUFACTURE 15 

CHAPTER     III — THE  WOOL-BEARING   SHEEP 25 

CHAPTER      IV — THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  PRODUCTION 33 

CHAPTER  V — CLASSIFICATION  AND  MARKETING  OF  WOOL..  40 

CHAPTER  VI — PREPARATORY  MANUFACTURING  PROCESSES  . .  49 

CHAPTER  VII — SPINNING  WOOLEN  AND  WORSTED  YARNS..  57 

CHAPTER  VIII — THE  WEAVING  PROCESSES 63 

CHAPTER      IX — DYEING  AND   FINISHING 72 

CHAPTER       X — MANUFACTURE  AND  USE  OF  SHODDY 80 

CHAPTER      XI — MOHAIR,  ALPACA  AND  OTHER  FIBERS 87 

CHAPTER    XII — DICTIONARY  OF  WOOL  FABRICS 94 

TWELVE  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


570 1 


Introduction 


IT  is  safe  to  say  that,  while  wool  is  the  oldest  of  all  our  textiles,  the 
public  knows  less  about  it  than  about  silk,  cotton  or  linen. 

Folks  realize  in  a  general  way  that  woolen  fibers  come  from  the 
backs  of  sheep,  yet  they  have  little  or  no  conception  of  the  vast  difference 
that  exists  between  wool  as  it  comes  from  sheep  in  various  parts  of  the 
world,  for  example. 

Most  people  think  that  wool  suits  or  hats  or  socks  are  all  alike,  whereas 
there  is  often  a  very  tremendous  difference  in  those  articles  that  may  appear 
exactly  alike.  One  may  be  of  virgin  wool  and  the  other  of  wool  that  has 
been  worked  over  many,  many  times. 

Wool  is  the  one  textile  for  which  no  substitute  has  been  found.  We 
have  fibre  silk  and  materials  made  of  various  fibres  that  answer  the  purpose 
of  cotton  or  linen,  but  NO  material  has  been  discovered  that  will  take  the 
place  of  wool. 

So-called  imitation  wools  may  look,  feel  and  appear  like  wool,  but  the 
body  refuses  to  react  to  these  in  the  same  way  it  does  to  real  wool. 

Selling  or  buying  woolen  materials  or  products  of  any  kind  involves 
more  than  the  sale  of  just  the  item.  What  the  buyer  wants  is  comfort  or 
protection.  The  salesman  who  fails  to  realize  this  is  missing  a  big  oppor- 
tunity. 

That  all  may  know  the  properties  and  kinds  and  types  of  woolens  the 
DRY  GOODS  ECONOMIST  has  had  prepared  one  of  the  most  complete  brief 
treatises  on  wool  ever  attempted.  We  doubt  if  any  volume  of  its  size  gives 
in  condensed  form  so  much  vital  information  about  the  oldest  of  our  ma- 
terials. 

As  is  usual  in  Mr.  Darby's  writings,  the  book  is  free  from  technicalities 
so  that  it  is  easily  understood  by  a  layman. 

Whether  you  buy  or  sell  woolens  you'll  get  greater  pleasure  from  the 
handling  of  them  if  you  are  familiar  with  the  facts  contained  in  this  book. 

May  the  reading  of  it  be  a  great  pleasure. 

ERNEST  C.  HASTINGS^ 

Managing  Editor, 
DRY  GOODS  ECONOMIST. 


WOOL 

THE  WORLD'S  COMFORTER 


CHAPTER  I 
HISTORY  OF  WOOL 

IT  is  probable  that  wool  was  the  first  fiber  used  by  man  for  clothing. 
It  is  certain  that  wool  shares  with  flax  the  distinction  of  being  the 

most  ancient  of  the  textile  fibers;  but  the  origin  of  both  of  them 
goes  so  far  back  into  prehistoric  times  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  which 
came  first.  In  the  beginning  men  used  skins  to  clothe  their  bodies, 
and  sheepskins  no  doubt  were  used  widely  for  this  purpose  by  primi- 
tive peoples.  As  far  as  we  know,  the  pastoral  stage  always  has  pre- 
ceded the  agricultural  stage  in  the  development  of  civilization.  Men 
lived  nomadic  lives  and  counted  their  wealth  in  flocks  and  herds  for 
ages  before  they  began  to  settle  down  and  cultivate  the  earth.  And 
unquestionably  the  woolly  skins  of  sheep  that  died  or  were  killed 
for  food  must  have  been  deemed  especially  suitable  for  clothing. 

Just  when  men  first  began  to  shear  off  the  wool  and  to  spin  and 
weave  it  into  cloth  is  another  matter.  They  must  have  done  it  cen- 
turies before  the  dawn  of  recorded  history;  because  the  very  earliest 
legends  make  reference  to  the  fleeces  of  sheep,  and  sheep  originally 
did  not  possess  the  woolly  fleece  we  so  inevitably  associate  with  them 
now.  Sheep  in  the  beginning  were  covered  with  hair,  and  the  wool 
was  merely  a  slight  soft  down  next  the  skin.  Apparently  it  occurred  to 
some  prehistoric  shepherd  that  sheep  could  be  made  to  grow  more 
of  this  wool  by  special  breeding ;  and  as  a  result  of  this  experiment  the 
woolly  sheep  was  produced.  It  is  very  likely  that  the  impetus  to 
develop  a  woolly  sheep  came  from  previous  experiments  in  spinning 
and  weaving  the  fiber.  That  the  production  of  wool  for  its  own  sake 

[7] 


8  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

goes  back  to  the  most  ancient  times  we  may  infer  from  such  early 
myths  as  that  of  Jason  and  the  Golden  Fleece. 

Some  idea  of  the  antiquity  of  wool  as  a  textile  fiber  may  be 
gleaned  from  the  fact  that  when  the  ruins  of  villages  inhabited  by  the 
Swiss  Lake  Dwellers,  in  the  Stone  Age,  were  uncovered  in  1853-54, 
fabrics  made  of  wool  were  found  there,  and  bodies  wrapped  in  plaited 
woolen  cloth  have  been  found  in  the  barrows  of  the  early  Britons. 
If  we  assume,  as  we  plausibly  may,  that  wool  was  used  as  a  textile 
at  a  correspondingly  early  stage  in  the  civilization  of  Asia,  we  can 
trace  it  back  to  the  very  childhood  of  mankind.  Indeed  Abel,  the  son 
of  Adam,  we  are  told,  was  a  keeper  of  sheep,  and  whether  we  take 
the  Bible  literally  or  figuratively,  this  indication  of  the  high  antiquity 
of  sheep  raising  is  eloquent  enough. 

That  the  ancient  Israelites  were  great  sheep  ranchers  is  well 
known.  And  that  they  used  the  wool  for  making  cloth  is  suggested 
by  many  references  to  sheep-shearing  made  in  the  Bible.  (For  ex- 
ample, Genesis  38 :  13,  and  31 :  19 ;  Deuteronomy  15 :  19 ;  1  Samuel  25 : 
4;  2  Kings,  3:  4.)  Besides  speaking  frequently  of  the  wool  of  sheep 
as  a  separate,  valuable  commodity,  the  Bible  makes  more  direct  refer- 
ences to  its  use  as  a  textile  fiber.  The  book  of  Proverbs,  for  example, 
says  of  the  virtuous  woman  that  she  "seeketh  wool  and  flax  and  worketh 
willingly  with  her  hands."  We  find,  too,  that  the  priests  were  for- 
bidden to  wear  garments  of  mixed  wool  and  linen.  This  prohibition 
was  evidently  borrowed  from  the  Egyptians,  who  forbade  the  wearing 
of  woolen  clothing  by  their  priests. 

Such  a  prohibition  would  indicate  that  woolen  cloth  was  an  article 
of  such  common  use  among  the  ancient  Egyptians  as  not  to  be  deemed 
suited  for  wear  by  the  august  servants  of  the  gods;  although  one 
writer  has  suggested,  with  an  apparent  flippancy  which  may  convey 
a  real  truth,  that  perhaps  the  Egyptian  linen  manufacturers  had  a 
pull  with  the  Government.  As  an  instance  that  this  latter  surmise 
may  not  be  so  absurd  as  it  sounds,  the  writer  cites  the  fact  that 
Charles  the  Second  of  England,  with  the  express  object  of  promoting 
the  use  of  woolen  cloth  in  his  realm,  decreed  that  all  dead  persons 
must  be  wrapped  in  woolen  shrouds. 


HERE  Is  A  SCENE  FROM  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  HILLS. 
THE  SHEEP  ARE  BEING  RELIEVED  OF  THEIR  FLEECE 
BY  SHEARERS  WORKING  WITH  HAND  SHEARS.  NOTE 
How  THE  OLD  FELLOW  IN  THE  FOREGROUND  HOLDS 
THE  SHEEP  DOWN  DURING  THE  OPERATION.  ON 
LARGE  RANCHES,  POWER  SHEARS  ARE  USED 


History  of  Wool  11 


But  in  any  case,  even  if  the  Egyptian  linen  manufacturers  were 
forced  to  use  their  influence  with  the  Government,  it  merely  goes  to 
show  that  they  were  having  a  hard  time  with  the  competition  of 
woolens.  We  have  evidence  to  prove  that  the  Egyptians  wore  both 
woolen  and  linen  garments  fully  3000  years  before  the  opening  of  the 
Christian  era,  and  it  is  likely  that  the  beginning  of  woolen  spinning 
and  weaving  among  them  antedated  that  time  by  many  centuries. 

Coming  down  to  later  times  we  find  from  Homer  (about  850  B.  C.) 
that  wool  clothing  was  familiar  to  the  most  ancient  Greeks.  Evidently 
it  was  linen  that  Penelope  was  spinning  while  she  held  off  her  suitors 
until  Ulysses  could  get  back  to  her;  but  the  familiar  practice  of  spin- 
ning and  weaving  among  the  Greeks  of  that  period  is  enough  to 
suggest  that  they  must  have  been  making  woolen  cloth  for  a  long  time, 
as  they  were  a  pastoral  people.  Apparently  they  got  the  textile  arts 
from  the  Babylonians.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  Babylonians  wore 
woolen  tunics,  and  Tertullian  says :  "From  the  beginning  the  Milesians 
were  employed  in  shearing  sheep,  the  Seres  in  spinning  the  product 
of  trees,  the  Tyrians  in  dyeing,  the  Phrygians  in  embroidery  and  the 
Babylonians  in  weaving." 

Nobody  who  has  read  much  in  the  history  and  legend  of  ancient 
Rome  can  escape  the  impression  that  the  Roman  matron  did  practically 
nothing  but  spin  and  weave  from  morning  to  night.  Every  time  we 
catch  a  glimpse  of  her  she  is  sitting  at  her  distaff  or  sending  her  shuttle 
merrily  "flashing  through  the  loom."  It  is  quite  probable  that  most 
of  the  clothing  worn  by  the  ancient  Romans  was  made  of  wool;  for 
even  in  later  times,  when  Rome  began  to  grow  rich,  linen  still  was 
considered  something  of  a  luxury.  Sheep  raising  was  carried  on  ex- 
tensively in  the  country  around  Rome,  and  when  we  get  down  to  the 
Augustan  age  we  begin  to  find  evidence  that  the  Romans  devoted  con- 
siderable attention  to  the  breeding  of  sheep. 

In  fact,  the  finest  wool-bearing  sheep  of  our  own  times  are  indirect 
descendants  of  Roman  breeds.  About  two  hundred  years  before  the 
birth  of  Christ  the  Romans  had  developed  a  breed  of  Tarentine  sheep, 
which  had  valuable  wool-bearing  properties.  These  sheep  were  brown 
or  black.  The  Arabs  of  Northern  Africa  in  the  meantime  had  devel- 


12  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

oped  a  good  wool-bearing  sheep  which  was  pure  white.  Undoubtedly 
the  Arabs  had  bred  sheep  for  their  wool  at  a  much  earlier  period  than 
the  Romans,  inheriting  the  custom  from  the  pastoral  tribes  that  wan- 
dered the  plains  of  Asia  in  prehistoric  times.  But  the  Romans  appar- 
ently were  the  first  European  people  to  devote  serious  attention  to 
sheep-breeding. 

In  the  first  century  A.  D.,  a  Spanish  farmer  crossed  some  Tarentine 
ewes  with  African  rams,  and  the  result  of  this  cross  was  the  famous 
Spanish  merino,  the  ancestor  of  the  finest  wool-bearing  sheep  of  our 
day.  For  many  centuries  Spain  was  the  great  wool-producing  country 
of  Europe.  The  famous  merino  stock  was  renewed  there  with  Barbary 
rams  imported  by  Pedro  IV  in  the  14th  century  and  by  Cardinal 
Ximenes  in  the  16th  century.  But  from  about  the  10th  century  on 
Spain  had  a  dangerous  rival  in  England,  and  by  the  13th  century 
England  was  unquestionably  the  greatest  wool  producing  country  in 
Europe.  The  reason  for  this  is  difficult  to  understand,  as  the  English 
sheep  could  scarcely  have  been  equal  to  the  Spanish  merino.  But 
possibly  the  English  wool  was  cheaper. 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  when  the  rearing  of  sheep  for  their  wool 
first  began  in  England.  Wool  was  used  for  clothing  in  that  country 
before  the  Roman  conquest,  and  the  Romans  manufactured  woolen 
clothing  there  on  a  considerable  scale  for  the  use  of  their  legionaries. 
But  there  is  no  documentary  reference  to  native  wool.  A  document 
of  the  year  712  mentions  the  price  of  sheep;  but  gives  no  inkling  of 
whether  the  sheep  were  valued  for  their  wool  or  their  mutton.  But  by 
the  10th  century  we  find  English  wool  a  most  important  article  of 
commerce.  In  that  century  (the  year  961,  to  be  precise), 
Count  Baldwin  III  established  a  woolen  manufacturing  industry  at 
Ghent  and  wool  markets  at  Ypres  and  Bruges,  and  for  fully  three 
centuries  thereafter  Flanders  and  Brabant  were  the  great  woolen 
manufacturing  centers  of  Europe.  Most  of  their  raw  material  was 
derived  from  England. 

But  beginning  about  the  reign  of  Henry  I,  England  began  to 
develop  a  woolen  industry  of  her  own,  and  this  industry  was  promoted 
most  energetically  by  Edward  III,  who,  among  other  measures  for  the 


History  of  Wool  13 


benefit  of  the  English  industry,  prohibited  the  export  of  wool  from 
England.  From  the  reign  of  Edward  III  to  that  of  Elizabeth  the  pro- 
hibition on  the  export  of  wool  continued.  It  was  lifted  during  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth;  but  was  again  put  into  effect  in  1660  and  continued 
until  1825.  The  measures  taken  to  promote  the  woolen  manufacturing 
industry  in  England  also  served  to  promote  the  sheep-breeding  indus- 
try, and  by  the  opening  of  the  19th  century  there  were  estimated  to  be 
about  30,000,000  sheep  in  England.  Many  of  the  English  breeds,  as 
we  shall  see  in  a  later  chapter,  were  good  wool-bearing  sheep,  although 
none  of  them  could  quite  compare  with  the  merino. 

During  the  centuries  when  England  shut  down  on  the  export  of 
wool,  Spain  was  the  main  provider  of  raw  material  to  the  continental 
woolen  industry  until  the  Peninsular  War.  France,  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria also  produced  some  wools  of  fine  quality.  But  Spain  maintained 
her  pre-eminence  chiefly  by  virtue  of  the  merino,  which  was  heavily 
protected  by  laws  forbidding  under  heavy  penalties  the  export  of 
merino  sheep.  Some  of  these  sheep,  however,  trickled  out  into  other 
countries  as  royal  presents  to  reigning  sovereigns.  In  this  way  Louis 
XIV  of  France  got  some  which  were  the  progenitors  of  the  famous 
Rambouillet  merinos/^  Others  went  to  Germany  and  Austria,  the  former 
resulting  in  the  Saxony  merino,  probably  the  finest  of  all  wool-bearing 
sheep.  Still  others  went  to  Holland,  which  sent  them  to  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  after  the  Dutch  settled  that  colony,  and  laid  the  foun- 
dation for  the  great  wool-raising  industry  of  South  Africa.  Some 
merinos  were  brought  also  from  Spain  to  England — by  smugglers, 
it  is  said. 

In  the  meantime,  an  important  wool  growing  industry  had  been 
developing  in  the  New  World.  In  South  America  the  use  of  wool  as  a 
textile  fiber  goes  back  to  very  ancient  times.  The  Incas  of  Peru  wove 
cloths  of  wool,  and  wool  cloths  were  found  also  in  Mexico  by  the  first 
explorers  of  that  country.  The  beginning  of  the  North  American  wool 
growling  industry,  however,  may  be  traced  to  the  landing  of  English 
sheep  at  Jamestown,  Va.,  in  1609.  James  I,  who  was  interested  in 
promoting  so  many  things,  encouraged  wool  growing  in  the  Colonies, 
and  the  industry  was  further  encouraged  by  subsequent  colonial  gov- 


14  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

ernors.  In  the  early  18th  century,  Jamaica,  Maryland  and  Virginia 
were  exporting  wool  to  England. 

But  the  greater  profits  in  tobacco  and  cotton  interfered  with  the 
promotion  of  sheep  raising  in  the  South  on  a  large  scale,  while  in  New 
England  the  climate  was  not  particularly  favorable,  as  it  made  pas- 
turing difficult  or  impossible  in  winter  time.  Nevertheless,  consider- 
able attention  was  paid  to  sheep  breeding  in  this  country  after  the 
Revolution  and  during  the  early  years  of  the  19th  century,  and  Ver- 
mont especially  became  famous  for  the  breeding  of  fine  sheep.  Be- 
tween 1801  and  1812  merino  sheep  were  introduced  by  William  Davis, 
Col.  David  Humphreys  and  others.  From  these  have  developed  a  fine 
American  type  known  as  delaine.  Finally  the  opening  up  of  the  West 
provided  large  areas  suitable  for  sheep  raising,  and  made  the  United 
States  one  of  the  important  wool  producing  countries  of  the  world. 

But  the  19th  century,  which  marked  the  growth  of  the  United 
States  and  the  decline  of  Europe  as  wool-producing  regions,  saw  both 
of  them  rapidly  overshadowed  by  Australasia,  which  is  now  by  all  odds 
the  greatest  wool  producing  area  in  the  world.  The  foundation  of  the 
Australian  sheep  raising  industry  seems  to  have  been  laid  by  Capt. 
John  MacArthur  of  the  British  Army,  who  brought  some  merinos  there 
from  the  Cape  in  the  beginning  of  the  19th  century.  Later  a  con- 
siderable number  of  Rambouillet  rams  were  brought  from  France  and 
crossed  with  the  other  merino  stocks.  Merinos  were  brought  to  Aus- 
tralia also  from  England,  Saxony  and  the  United  States.  In  New 
Zealand  and  in  South  America  the  sheep  raising  industry  began  some- 
what as  it  did  in  Australia,  with  the  importation  of  merinos  from 
other  countries;  but,  unlike  Australia,  both  New  Zealand  and  South 
America  gradually  began  to  devote  more  and  more  attention  to  the 
raising  of  mutton  or  cross-bred  sheep,  and  while  they  are  still  important 
wool-producing  countries,  they  supply  a  comparatively  small  proportion 
of  fine  wools. 


CHAPTER  II 
HISTORY  OF  WOOL  MANUFACTURE 

A3  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter,  wool  was  first  made  into 
cloth  ages  before  the  beginning  of  recorded  history.  It  is 
assumed  that  primitive  men  made  woolen  cloth  by  felting  the 
wool  before  the  arts  of  spinning  and  weaving  were  discovered.  There 
is  no  means  of  knowing  that  they  did  this,  except  by  analogy  with 
primitive  people  of  our  time,  such  as  the  Polynesians,  who  make  cloth 
froii  vegetable  fibers  in  this  way.  But  the  pulpy  nature  of  vegetable 
fibers  may  have  suggested  such  a  method  of  treatment  as  an  alternative 
to  the  more  laborious  work  of  spinning  and  weaving,  and  it  is  to  be 
doubted  if  woolen  cloth  was  first  made  in  such  a  manner. 

It  is  much  more  likely  that  the  art  of  weaving,  in  its  most  elemen- 
tary form,  was  practised  long  before  men  abandoned  the  use  of  animal 
skins  for  clothing,  or  perhaps  even  before  they  adopted  clothing  at 
all.  No  doubt  it  began  with  the  first  crude  attempts  of  primitive 
women  to  weave  twigs  into  some  kind  of  object,  with  no  other  idea, 
probably,  than  a  mere  childish  curiosity  as  to  what  the  result  would 
be,  or  an  equally  childish  desire  to  keep  their  hands  employed  during 
the  long  hours  when  the  men  were  away  on  the  chase. 

After  they  had  succeeded  in  making  baskets  and  similar  articles, 
it  probably  occurred  to  some  bright  cave  woman  that  clothing  might 
be  made  by  weaving  some  soft  material  like  wool.  To  do  this  it 
would  be  necessary  to  twist  tufts  of  wool  into  long  strands.  Thus 
we  have  the  beginning  of  spinning.  And  as  the  strands  of  wool  were 
not  stiff  like  twigs,  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  a  certain  number  of 
them  stretched  taut  between  poles  or  something  in  order  to  weave  the 
fabric.  Thus  we  had  the  first  loom. 

All  this  is  surmise,  of  course,  but  it  is  probable  that  the  arts  of 
spinning  and  weaving  began  in  some  such  way.  When  we  come  to 
the  earliest  mythological  and  historical  records  we  find  the  arts  of 
spinning  and  weaving  mentioned  so  frequently  as  to  suggest  that 
they  had  been  in  existence  for  long  ages  and  had  been  developed  to 

[15] 


16  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

a  fairly  advanced  stage.  The  Egyptians  attribute  the  invention  of 
weaving  to  the  goddess  Isis,  and  they  themselves  were  generally 
credited  by  other  ancient  peoples  with  having  been  the  inventors  of 
weaving.  This,  however,  was  due  largely  to  the  deep  impression 
made  by  Egyptian  civilization  on  the  ancient  world,  particularly  the 
Greeks.  It  is  more  probable  that  the  Egyptians  developed  the  art 
of  weaving  to  a  higher  degree  than  any  other  people,  for  they  were 
excellent  craftsmen,  and  that  they  borrowed  some  of  their  best 
ideas,  as  was  their  custom,  from  the  Assyrians. 

In  the  Bible  we  find  Job  complaining  that  the  days  of  his  life  fly 
past  as  quickly  as  the  shuttle  through  the  loom — a  very  familiar 
complaint.  It  suggests,  however,  that  the  weavers  of  his  time  must 
have  had  considerable  skill.  To  judge  by  the  pictures  of  ancient 
Egyptian  looms,  most  of  the  skill  must  have  been  in  the  fingers  of 
the  operatives.  But  the  imperfection  of  their  looms  did  not  prevent 
them  from  weaving  beautiful  fabrics,  no  more  than  it  prevented 
the  Hindus  from  weaving  their  exquisitely  fine  Dacca  muslins  on 
looms  of  an  equally  primitive  type.  Later,  Babylon  became  the  great 
center  of  trade  in  woolen  cloths,  and  its  people  are  said  by  Tertullian 
to  have  surpassed  all  other  people  in  weaving,  just  as  the  people 
of  Tyre  surpassed  all  others  in  the  art  of  dyeing.  Still  later  the 
trade  supremacy  passed  to  Carthage. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  whether  those  ancient  trading 
nations  had  anything  remotely  approaching  the  beginnings  of  a  fac- 
tory system.  We  consider  it  likely  that  they  had.  The  surpassing 
skill  of  the  Egyptian  and  Babylonian  weavers  is  convincing  proof 
that  they  were  highly  trained  craftsmen,  and  it  is  altogether  likely 
that  they  were  slaves  employed  in  numbers  by  wealthy  merchants. 
It  is  probable  that  they  were  housed  under  one  roof  by  their  masters, 
with  women  and  children  who  did  the  picking,  carding  and  spinning, 
and  thus  constituted  what  might  be  called  a  factory  in  embryo.  Among 
more  pastoral  peoples,  such  as  the  Greeks  and  Hebrews,  the  spinning 
and  weaving  were  done  in  the  home,  and  women  of  the  highest  rank 
busied  themselves  with  making  clothing  for  their  households.  And 
it  is  a  curious  thing  that  the  textile  industry,  until  comparatively 


History  of  Wool  Manufacture  17 

recent  times,  developed  along  the  lines  of  a  household  craft  rather 
than  along  the  lines  of  the  primitive  factory  system. 

Both  systems  seem  to  have  existed  in  ancient  Rome.  The  Roman 
matrons  of  the  patrician  class  were  very  industrious  women  and 
proud  of  their  skill  in  spinning  and  weaving.  On  their  great  estates 
they  maintained  large  numbers  of  male  and  female  slaves,  some  of 
whom  they  instructed  in  the  textile  arts,  so  that  every  estate  had  a 
sort  of  private  textile  factory  which  supplied  clothing  for  the  family 
and  its  servants.  There  was  also  in  Rome  and  other  cities  of  the 
empire  a  class  of  professional  weavers,  called  textores,  who  in  some 
cases,  perhaps,  were  freemen  and  practised  their  craft  independently, 
although  in  most  cases  probably  they  were  slaves.  The  usual  dress 
of  the  Romans  was  made  of  wool,  and  even  as  late  as  Caesar's  time 
linen  was  something  of  a  luxury,  while  silk  was  decidedly  so.  There 
was  the  toga  densa  or  hirta  (thick  or  hairy  toga)  worn  in  the  winter 
time,  and  the  toga  trita  or  rasa  (thin  or  smooth  toga)  worn  in  sum- 
mer. The  former  obviously  was  made  of  a  heavy,  napped,  woolen 
cloth,  and  the  latter  of  a  light  material  similar  to  worsted. 

It  is  not  apparent,  however,  that  the  Romans  developed  to  any 
great  extent  the  textile  arts,  or  any  other  arts  except  those  of  war. 
The  important  centers  of  the  textile  industry  continued  to  be  in  Asia 
and  North  Africa,  although  in  the  declining  years  of  the  Roman 
Empire  there  were  considerable  textile  manufactures  in  Constanti- 
nople and  other  Greek  cities.  During  the  early  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era  the  finest  woolen  stuffs  were  made  in  Bagdad,  Damas- 
cus and  other  cities  of  the  Saracenic  Empire,  while  the  barbarians 
were  overrunning  Europe,  extinguishing  the  torch  of  civilization  which 
the  Romans  had  kindled. 

In  the  textile  arts,  as  in  all  other  respects,  this  torch  was  re- 
kindled by  Venice,  Florence  and  the  other  great  cities  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance.  Venice  it  was  that  brought  woolen  manufacture  back 
to  Europe.  Even  before  this  time,  it  is  true,  there  was  a  flourishing 
woolen  industry  in  Spain.  The  industry  had  been  introduced  there 
at  a  very  early  age  by  the  Carthagenians,  and  was  re-introduced  in 
the  8th  century  by  the  Saracens,  who  were  noted  for  the  production 


18  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

of  beautiful  fabrics.  But  Moorish  Spain  was  only  geographically  a 
part  of  Europe.  It  was  really  a  part  of  the  Saracenic  Empire,  and 
it  did  not  serve  as  a  carrier  of  the  textile  arts  to  other  European 
countries.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  Barcelona  had  become  the  seat  of 
an  important  woolen  industry  and  its  products  were  far-famed.  But 
after  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  the  attention  of  the  Spaniards 
was  turned  to  gold  and  the  more  prosaic  textile  industries  began  to 
decline. 

In  Venice,  Florence,  Padua  and  other  Italian  cities,  however,  the 
woolen  industry  flourished  apace.  Venice  imported  weavers  from 
Constantinople  and  the  cities  of  the  Levant,  and  became  not  only  a 
great  woolen  manufacturing  center,  but  a  great  cloth  market.  In 
Florence,  we  are  told,  wool  manufacturing  was  established  about  the 
year  1250  by  friars  of  the  Order  of  St.  Michael  of  Alexandria,  and 
soon  grew  to  large  proportions.  Villani,  in  his  "History  of  Florence," 
says  that  in  the  year  1340  there  were  over  200  wool  manufacturing 
establishments  there,  supporting  about  30,000  people. 

In  the  medieval  Italian  cities  they  had  the  guild  system,  which 
was  more  a  development  of  the  household  craft  than  of  the  primitive 
factory  system.  Instead  of  being  slaves  working  for  a  master,  the 
weavers  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  independent  craftsmen,  who  were 
very  proud  of  their  skill  and  put  on  considerable  airs.  A  master 
weaver  conducted  his  business  in  his  own  home,  with  the  aid  of 
his  family  and  apprentices,  and  he  had  his  yarn  spun  for  him  by 
women  and  children  either  on  his  own  premises  or  in  their  homes.  An 
apprentice  could  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  master  weaver  on  his  own 
account  after  he  had  served  a  certain  number  of  years  and  passed 
the  tests  of  the  guild,  which  were  very  strict.  This  system,  with 
variations,  continued  until  the  beginning  of  the  industrial  revolution. 

From  Italy,  the  woolen  industry  spread  to  the  Netherlands,  where 
it  is  said  to  have  been  established  by  Count  Baldwin  III  about  the 
year  960  or  961.  For  centuries  the  industry  flourished  in  Flanders, 
Brabant  and  Hainault,  and  supplied  most  of  Europe  with  clothing. 
Bruges  was  the  great  woolen  market  until  the  16th  century,  when 
it  began  to  be  eclipsed  by  the  rise  of  Antwerp.  Ghent  and  Louvain 


History  of  Wool  Manufacture  21 

also  were  important  manufacturing  cities.  It  is  said  that  in  the 
year  1305  Louvain  had  4000  weaving  establishments,  employing 
150,000  journeymen  weavers;  but  this  doesn't  sound  at  all  probable. 
In  the  14th  century  the  woolen  industry  of  the  Netherlands  began 
to  decline,  and  the  religious  persecutions  of  the  16th  century  prac- 
tically ruined  the  industry.  In  the  16th  and  17th  centuries  the  chief 
manufacturing  centers  were  Leyden,  Haarlem  and  Amsterdam. 
France,  owing  perhaps  to  continued  wars,  was  very  late  in  taking 
up  woolen  manufacture,  being  content  to  get  her  supplies  from  the 
Netherlands.  It  was  not  until  the  reign  of  Henry  of  Navarre  that 
the  industry  began  to  be  developed  in  an  important  way.  Subse- 
quently, the  province  of  Languedoc,  particularly  the  city  of  Nismes, 
became  famous  for  fine  woolen  cloths. 

In  England,  the  Romans  are  supposed  to  have  taught  the  Britons 
how  to  make  woolens.  In  any  case,  they  had  a  factory  at  Winchester, 
which  made  clothing  for  their  legionaries,  and  this  may  be  said, 
perhaps,  to  have  been  the  beginning  of  the  industry  in  England.  Then 
came  the  invading  Angles  and  Saxons,  who  were  relatively  barbarians 
and  certainly  had  no  organized  industry  of  any  kind.  But  they 
practised  spinning  and  weaving  in  their  homes. 

The  real  beginning  of  the  woolen  industry  in  England,  however, 
was  laid  by  the  first  immigrant  Flemish  weavers.  Some  of  them 
are  said  to  have  come  over  with  William  the  Conqueror;  but  this  is 
by  no  means  certain.  A  considerable  number  of  weavers  were  driven 
from  Flanders  by  floods,  and  settled  in  England  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
I.  That  they  came  in  considerable  numbers  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  during  the  reign  of  Henry  I  and  his  successor,  Stephen,  several 
guilds  of  weavers  were  incorporated.  Their  principal  headquarters 
was  the  city  of  Norwich,  which  remained  for  centuries  the  chief 
woolen. manufacturing  center  in  England.  Some  of  them  settled  in 
Worstead,  in  Norfolk,  and  specialized  in  fine  cloths,  which  became 
known  as  worsteds,  after  the  city  in  which  they  were  made. 

The  wars  which  disturbed  the  reigns  of  John  and  Henry  III, 
brought  decay  to  the  English  woolen  industry;  but  it  began  to  revive 
during  the  reigns  of  Edward  I  and  II  and  was  put  on  such  a  flourish- 


22  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

ing  basis  by  Edward  III  that  often  he  is  given  credit  for  having 
founded  the  industry  in  England.  But  Edward,  like  many  another 
man,  gets  a  lot  of  credit  which  ought  by  right  to  go  to  his  wife.  She 
was  Philippa,  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Hainault,  and  being  a  Nether- 
lander, she  had  grown  up  with  the  woolen  industry,  so  to  speak.  At 
her  suggestion  and  through  her  influence  Edward  III  brought  over 
crowds  of  Flemish  weavers,  dyers  and  fullers,  whom  he  encouraged 
and  protected  in  every  possible  way.  During  his  reign  the  industry 
spread  all  over  the  kingdom. 

After  Edward's  death  the  woolen  industry  languished  until  the 
reign  of  Henry  VI,  who  took  some  steps  to  promote  it,  among  them 
being  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  inspection  to  prevent  short 
measuring  and  misrepresentation  of  goods,  a  practice  which  had  become 
distressingly  common  among  the  honest  craftsmen  of  the  time.  Henry 
VII,  who  was  a  good  business  man,  brought  over  more  weavers  from 
Flanders  and  encouraged  the  industry  energetically;  but  Henry  VIII, 
who  was  not  a  good  business  man  and  had  other  things  to  think  of, 
paid  little  attention  to  it,  and  the  industry  began  to  decline  again.  It 
revived  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  when  there  was  a  further  immigra- 
tion of  weavers,  following  religious  persecution  in  the  Netherlands. 

Thereafter,  with  various  ups  and  downs,  it  continued  to  flourish 
until  the  18th  century,  when  the  invention  of  the  fly  shuttle,  the 
spinning  jenny,  the  mule  and  the  power  loom  gave  it  a  tremendous 
impetus.  After  the  discovery  of  steam  power  the  industry  shifted 
more  and  more  to  the  North,  where  coal  was  handy.  For  many  gen- 
erations before  this  there  had  been  considerable  woolen  manufacturing 
in  Yorkshire  and  other  Northern  counties;  but  after  the  application 
of  steam  power  the  North  began  to  thrive  industrially  at  the  expense 
of  the  rest  of  the  country,  and  during  the  19th  century  the  woolen 
manufacturing  industry  became  concentrated  chiefly  in  .the  West 
Riding  of  Yorkshire. 

Credit  for  founding  the  industry  in  America  seems  to  belong  to 
a  number  of  Yorkshire  families  who  settled  at  Rowley,  Mass.,  about 
1638,  and  built  a  fulling  mill  there  in  1643,  making  cloths  from  both 
"cotton  wool"  and  "sheep's  wool."  No  doubt  the  very  first  immigrants 


History  of  Wool  Manufacture  23 

spun  and  wove  woolen  cloths  in  their  homes  as  soon  as  they  could 
get  wool  to  spin  and  weave  them  with.  As  early  as  1639  there  is 
record  of  home-made  cloth  in  the  records  of  the  Probate  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  and  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  offered  bounties  for 
woolen  cloth  made  from  home-grown  wool. 

Most  of  the  Colonial  legislatures,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  did  everything 
possible  to  promote  the  woolen  industry,  and  by  the  middle  of  the 
17th  century  it  was  well  established.  In  order  to  promote  sheep 
raising,  an  act  was  passed  in  1654  prohibiting  the  importation  of 
wool  from  England.  By  1699  the  industry  had  grown  to  such  propor- 
tions that  the  British  Parliament,  fearful  of  the  effect  of  such 
competition  on  the  home  industry,  prohibited  the  export  of  woolen 
manufactures  from  the  Colonies.  By  that  time  there  were  woolen 
mills — with  hand  machinery,  of  course — at  Roxbury,  Watertown, 
Andover,  Ipswich,  Barnstable  and  many  other  New  England  towns. 
In  1695  a  worsted  mill  was  established  by  John  Cornish  at  Boston. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  18th  century  woolen  manufacture  con- 
tinued to  flourish  in  the  Colonies,  although  largely  as  a  cottage 
industry.  This  in  spite  of  the  fact  that,  while  the  Colonial  legislatures 
had  not  been  slow  in  promoting  the  woolen  industry,  their  most 
energetic  efforts  had  been  devoted  to  the  establishment  of  a  linen 
industry.  As  a  sort  of  testimonial  to  these  combined  efforts  the 
most  characteristic  and  widely  used  cloth  of  the  period  was  the  linsey 
woolsey,  a  fabric  with  a  linen  warp  and  wool  filling. 

After  the  Revolution  it  took  fresh  life,  not  only  in  New  England 
but  in  Pennsylvania,  where  it  had  been  introduced  by  the  early  Quaker 
and  German  settlers.  It  is  said  that  there  were  twelve  fulling  mills 
in  Philadelphia  in  1760.  During  the  Revolution,  Philadelphia  made 
clothes  for  the  Continental  Army,  and  the  industry  was  encouraged 
there  by  the  patriots.  By  1810  there  were  three  woolen  mills  in 
Philadelphia  and  one  in  Germantown — that  is,  real  woolen  mills  con- 
ducting all  the  processes  in  the  manufacture  of  cloth.  The  first  woolen 
mill  of  this  kind  in  America  seems  to  have  been  one  established  at 
Hartford,  Conn.,  in  1788,  and  known  as  the  Hartford  Woolen  Manu- 
factory. The  first  woolen  mill  worked  by  power  machinery  is  said 


24  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

to  have  been  built  at  Newburyport,  Mass.,  in  1794,  under  the  direction 
of  John  and  Arthur  Scholfield,  who  came  to  Boston  from  Saddleworth, 
Yorkshire.  The  former  built  a  mill  at  Montville,  Conn.,  in  1799,  and 
his  brother  built  one  at  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  in  1800.  From  this  time  on, 
the  industry  developed  gradually  until  1845,  when  the  city  of  Lawrence 
was  founded  and  the  career  of  the  great  American  woolen  industry, 
as  we  know  it  now,  really  began. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  WOOL-BEARING  SHEEP 

IT  is  difficult  to  define  the  difference  between  wool  and  hair.  In 
fact,  many  authorities  maintain  that  there  is  no  real  difference 

between  them,  and  that  wool  is  simply  a  variety  of  hair.  Certainly, 
it  is  impossible  to  say  exactly  at  what  point  an  animal  fiber  ceases  to 
be  hair  and  becomes  wool.  On  some  wild  or  neglected  sheep,  for 
example,  the  wool  is  as  much  like  hair  as  the  hair  of  some  other 
animals  is  like  wool. 

However,  wool  may  be  differentiated  from  hair  by  the  fact  that  the 
latter  is  straight  and  smooth,  while  the  former  is  wavy  or  kinky  and  is 
covered  with  minute  serratures,  or  saw-like  teeth,  varying  between 
1200  and  3000  to  the  inch.  It  is  these  characteristics  of  wool  which 
give  it  such  value  for  textile  purposes.  The  waviness  of  the  fibers 
gives  them  elasticity  and  their  serrated  surface  causes  them  to  adhere 
closely  to  one  another,  so  that  they  mat  or  felt  readily. 

Chemically,  wool  is  composed  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  oxygen 
and  sulphur.  The  proportions  of  these  substances  vary  in  different 
kinds  of  wool,  some  wools  having  a  high  carbon  content,  some  a  high 
nitrogen  content,  and  so  forth.  Because  of  its  chemical  content  wool 
will  resist  the  action  of  most  acids,  but  will  dissolve  readily  in  a 
strong  alkali.  It  is  very  easy,  therefore,  to  detect  the  proportion  of 
wool  in  a  cotton-mixed  fabric,  for  instance,  by  immersing  the  fabric 
in  a  solution  of  caustic  soda,  which  will  dissolve  the  wool  but  leave 
the  cotton  intact. 

Physically,  wool,  like  hair,  is  a  hollow  tube,  the  medulla  or  hollow 
core  being  Vs  to  *4  the  total  diameter  of  the  fiber.  This  is  a  great 
advantage  in  dyeing,  since  the  coloring  matter  enters  the  ends  of  the 
fiber,  filling  up  the  hollow  core  and  showing  through  the  transparent 
outer  surface  like  colored  liquid  through  a  glass  bottle.  Were  it  not 
for  this  advantage,  wool,  owing  to  its  hard,  scaly  surface,  would  be 
very  difficult  to  dye  satisfactorily. 

The  quality  of  wool  depends  upon  a  number  of  conditions,  the  chief 

125J 


26  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

of  which,  perhaps,  is  the  variety  of  sheep  from  which  it  is  taken.  It 
can  readily  be  understood  that,  among  the  hundreds  of  millions  of 
wild  and  domesticated  sheep  raised  in  all  parts  of  the  world  under  all 
sorts  of  climatic  conditions,  with  countless  differences  in  care  and 
breeding,  the  varieties  of  wool  produced  are  practically  without 
limit.  All  these  varieties,  it  is  thought,  derive  from  a  few  original 
classes  of  hairy  sheep  and  have  been  multiplied  beyond  count  by 
interbreeding  through  thousands  of  years.  They  may  be  divided 
roughly  into  wild  sheep  and  domesticated  sheep.  The  former,  which 
are  still  to  be  found  in  large  numbers  in  South  Africa,  South 
America,  India,  Thibet,  our  own  Rocky  Mountains  and  other 
localities,  may  be  passed  over  without  comment,  as  they  are  of  no 
importance  from  a  commercial  point  of  view. 

Domesticated  sheep  of  all  varieties,  however,  produce  wool  of 
more  or  less  value  for  commercial  purposes.  All  of  them  derive 
originally,  it  is  presumed,  from  the  moufflon,  a  rough-haired  sheep 
which  roamed  the  plains  of  central  Asia  in  prehistoric  times  and  was 
probably  the  first  animal  domesticate^  by  man.  Presumably  it  was 
a  black  or  brown  animal  with  a  thick  covering  of  hair  and  a  light 
down  of  wool  next  the  skin.  It  is  quite  likely  that  the  development 
of  the  woolly  coating  on  sheep  happened  at  first  accidentally  through 
domestication  and  the  inbreeding  of  domesticated  animals;  for 
the  tendency  of  sheep  which  are  neglected  and  allowed  to  run  wild 
is  to  revert  to  the  hairy  type.  Later,  sheep  were  bred  expressly 
for  their  wool,  and  we  have  evidence  that  efforts  were  made  to  breed 
white  sheep  even  as  early  as  Biblical  times. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  there  had  been  developed  in 
Asia  and  Africa  a  fine,  white,  wool-bearing  sheep,  and  the  crossing  of 
this  variety  with  Tarentine  sheep  by  a  Spanish  farmer,  as  noted  in  a 
previous  chapter,  resulted  in  the  development  of  the  Spanish  merino, 
the  ancestor  of  our  finest  wool-bearing  sheep.  At  present  the  merino 
variety  is  cultivated  in  all  the  sheep-raising  countries  of  the  world. 
Naturally,  it  has  been  influenced  by  climatic  and  other  conditions  in 
different  countries,  so  that  there  are  many  different  kinds  of  pure 
merinos.  For  example,  the  Spanish  merino  introduced  into  Germany 


The  Wool-Bearing  Sheep  29 

developed  into  the  Saxony  and  Silesian  merino,  which  produces  the 
very  finest  wool  in  the  world.  Saxony  merinos  have  been  introduced 
into  the  United  States  and  other  countries,  and  mixed  with  other 
merinos  or  other  varieties. 

Similarly,  the  Spanish  merino  introduced  into  France  developed 
into  the  Rambouillet  type,  which  has  been  specially  popular  in  the 
United  States.  Merinos  also  have  been  introduced  into  the  United 
States  directly  from  Spain.  So,  we  have  in  this  country  merino  sheep 
descended  from  French,  German  and  Spanish  types,  and  modified  by 
climatic  conditions  in  different  parts  of  the  country  and  by  different 
methods  of  care  and  breeding.  In  Australia,  to  give  another  example, 
merinos  have  been  introduced  at  various  times  from  South  Africa, 
England,  the  United  States,  Germany  and  France.  These,  in  turn, 
have  been  modified  by  local  conditions,  so  that  there  are  three  distinct 
types  of  Australian  pure  merino,  varying  from  a  small  sheep  with 
very  fine  wool  to  a  large  sheep  with  comparatively  coarse  wool. 

In  general,  the  merino  is  a  small  sheep,  very  thickly  covered  with 
fine,  crimpy  wool.  Its  short  legs  and  its  thick  wool  coating,  which 
covers  practically  all  its  body  except  its  feet  and  its  snout,  gives  it 
rather  a  funny  appearance,  somewhat  resembling  those  little  woolly 
lapdogs  which  women  carry  around  with  them.  The  fiber  is  very 
fine  and  of  medium  staple,  varying  between  two  and  four  inches. 
It  contains  more  serratures  or  scales  to  the  inch  than  other  varieties 
and  this,  together  with  its  fineness,  makes  it  specially  valuable  for  the 
production  of  fine  fabrics.  It  is  not  so  lustrous  as  the  coarser  wools 
of  other  varieties. 

Next  to  the  merino,  the  most  important  wool-bearing  sheep  are 
the  so-called  long-wool  sheep,  which  are  of  English  origin.  As  the 
name  indicates,  the  chief  characteristic  of  these  sheep  is  a  wool 
of  long  staple,  ranging  from  four  to  twelve  inches.  The  wool,  as  a 
rule  is  coarse  and  highly  lustrous.  Because  of  its  coarseness  it  is 
not  desirable  for  most  kinds  of  fabrics.  But  the  weight  and  length 
of  their  fleece,  and  the  fact  that  they  are  suited  for  mutton  as  well 
as  for  wool,  makes  the  long-v/ool  sheep  very  desirable  for  crossing 
with  merinos,  and  they  are  used  principally  for  this  purpose.  The 


30  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

best-known  varieties  of  long-wool  sheep  are  the  Leicester,  Lincoln, 
Cotswold  and  Romney  Marsh. 

Leicester  sheep  are  considered  to  be  the  oldest  of  the  English  long- 
wool  breeds.  They  produce  a  clean  wool  of  good  quality  and  excep- 
tional luster.  Because  of  its  small  head,  the  Leicester  is  especially 
suitable  for  crossing  with  small-framed  merino  ewes,  and  the  result 
is  one  of  the  finest  of  cross-bred  wools.  It  is  also  used  to  a  considerable 
extent  for  crossing  with  other  breeds,  especially  with  Lincoln  and 
Romney  Marsh  sheep.  The  wool  of  the  pure  Leicester  is  very  long 
in  staple,  often  over  twelve  inches,  but  it  is  too  coarse  for  general  use. 
except  in  braids,  linings  and  certain  lustrous  dress  goods. 

The  Lincoln  is  a  large-framed  sheep  producing  a  very  heavy  fleece 
of  long-staple  wool.  The  average  Lincoln  will  yield  from  12  to  15 
pounds  of  wool.  This  wool  is  slightly  less  lustrous  than  that  of  the 
Leicester,  and  somewhat  coarser.  The  Lincoln  is  excellent  for  cross- 
ing with  pure  merino  and  cross-bred  merino  ewes,  and  is  used  exten- 
sively for  this  purpose,  especially  in  South  America  and  the  western 
United  States. 

Cotswold  and  Romney  Marsh  sheep  yield  what  are  frequently  re- 
ferred to  as  semi-luster  wools,  that  is,  wools  which  are  not  so  lustrous 
as  those  from  the  Lincoln  or  Leicester  breeds,  but  more  lustrous  than 
merinos.  The  Cotswold  bears  a  general  resemblance  to  the  Leicester, 
and  has  been  found  useful  for  crossing  with  merino  ewes.  It  is  per- 
haps the  favorite  breed  for  this  purpose  on  the  western  ranges  of 
the  United  States.  Crossed  with  the  merino,  it  produces  an  abundance 
of  good  wool  and  fairly  good  mutton.  The  Romney  Marsh  is  a  hardier 
breed,  especially  suited  to  a  wet  climate  and  to  poor  country.  Crossed 
with  the  merino,  it  produces  a  hardy  sheep  with  a  bright,  fine,  long- 
staple  wool.  It  is  little  known  in  the  United  States,  but  is  used  a 
good  deal  for  crossing  with  merinos  in  South  America  and  New  Zea- 
land. The  latter  country  also  uses  Leicester  sheep  to  a  considerable 
extent  for  crossing  with  merinos. 

Both  in  South  America  and  New  Zealand,  and  on  an  increasing 
scale  in  the  United  States,  sheep  are  being  bred  more  and  more  for 
mutton,  and  this  has  led  to  the  frequent  crossing  of  merino  and 


The  Wool-Bearing  Sheep  31 

long-wool  sheep  with  the  mutton  varieties.  The  mutton  sheep  as  a 
class  are  small  and  easily  fattened.  They  run  to  fat  rather  than  to 
wool,  and  yield  a  light  fleece  of  fairly  fine,  soft,  short-staple  wool.  Since 
both  wool  and  mutton  have  a  commercial  value,  it  is  a  common  practice 
to  cross  the  mutton  sheep  with  other  varieties,  especially  long-wool 
breeds.  Probably  the  best  of  these  mutton  sheep  is  the  Shropshire, 
which  produces  a  thick  fleece  of  tolerably  good  wool,  as  well  as  excel- 
lent mutton.  For  this  reason,  and  because  it  needs  comparatively  little 
care,  it  is  the  most  useful  type  for  the  general  farmer.  In  Australia 
it  is  used  often  for  crossing  with  small-framed  merinos. 

As  a  mutton  producer,  the  Southdown  sheep  is  without  a  rival ;  but 
it  is  not  much  as  a  wool  grower.  It  yields  a  light  fleece  of  short,  curly 
wool.  Other  familiar  mutton  sheep  are  the  Suffolks,  Hampshires,  Ox- 
fords and  Dorsets,  all  of  which  share  the  same  general  characteristics. 
In  addition  to  these  there  are  several  other  varieties  of  British  sheep 
which  produce  wool  of  special  value  for  certain  purposes.  Among 
them  are  the  Shetland  and  Cheviot  sheep,  both  Scottish  breeds.  Cheviot 
wool  is  especially  in  demand  for  tweeds  and  Shetland  wool  for  hosiery 
and  knit  underwear.  Some  Welsh  and  Irish  wools  also  are  highly 
valued  by  British  manufacturers.  The  best  of  the  Irish  sheep  is  the 
Roscommon,  which  is  a  cross  between  the  Leicester  and  a  native  breed. 

It  may  easily  be  imagined  that  between  the  different  classes  of 
sheep  mentioned  above,  and  their  multitudinous  crosses,  the  different 
varieties  of  wool  are  beyond  number.  While,  strictly  speaking,  the 
wool  from  any  crossbred  sheep  is  properly  described  as  crossbred  wool, 
the  term  crossbred  as  used  in  the  wool  trade  refers  only  to  wool  from 
crosses  between  the  merino  and  other  breeds.  Such  wool  is  usually 
described  according  to  the  proportion  of  merino  blood  in  the  breed. 
A  pure  merino  crossed  with  a  pure  long-wool  sheep,  for  example, 
would  produce  a  Vk -blood,  and  a  V2-blood  crossed  with  a  long-wool 
would  produce  a  ^-blood,  and  so  on.  The  terms  Vk-blood,  ^-blooel, 
etc.,  are  frequently  used,  however,  to  describe  wool  of  a  certain  quality, 
without  reference  to  the  proportion  of  merino  blood.  In  Australia 
there  is  a  common  variety  of  sheep  known  as  "comebacks,"  which  result 
from  breeding  crossbreds  back  to  the  merino  side. 


32  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 


Besides  the  various  classes  of  sheep  already  mentioned  there  is 
still  another  class  which  produces  low-grade  wools,  known  in  the  trade 
as  carpet  wools.  These  wools  come  from  native  sheep  which  have  not 
been  improved  by  breeding.  Nowadays  most  of  the  carpet  wools  come 
from  Asia  Minor,  Mongolia,  India,  China  and  Russia,  as  well  as  from 
certain  mountainous  districts,  such  as  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Scottish 
Highlands.  Although,  in  this  country  at  least,  such  wools  are  used 
chiefly  for  carpets,  they  are  also  used  largely  for  low-grade  woolens, 
coarse  blankets,  felt,  carriage  robes  and  various  other  purposes. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  PRODUCTION 

EXACT  estimates  have  never  been  made  of  the  total  wool  pro- 
duction of  the  world.  Such  estimates,  in  fact,  have  always 
been  impracticable,  as  sheep  raising  is  carried  on  in  many 
regions  where  there  is  no  official  census  in  existence.  However,  the 
bulk  of  the  wool  used  in  the  world's  commerce  is  raised  in  countries 
from  which  official  returns  are  available  and  in  which  conditions 
have  not  been  disturbed  greatly  by  the  war,  so  that  it  is  possible  at 
least  to  arrive  at  an  approximate  estimate  of  the  world's  supplies. 

All  authoritative  estimates  give  the  total  production  of  wool  as 
about  2,800,000,000  pounds  annually.  Of  this  about  40  per  cent  is 
produced  in  the  British  Empire,  about  15  per  cent  in  South  America 
and  Russia,  respectively,  and  about  10  per  cent  in  the  United  States. 
Most  of  the  remaining  20  per  cent  is  produced  in  Continental  Europe 
and  Asia  Minor.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  wool  production 
of  China  and  Mongolia  is  large;  but  no  estimates  of  its  amount  are 
available,  and  only  a  comparatively  small  volume  of  low  grade  or 
carpet  wools  from  these  countries  find  their  way  into  the  world's 
commerce. 

Easily  the  most  important  of  the  wool  producing  countries  is 
Australia,  which  produces  annually  about  650,000,000  pounds,  or 
more  than  one-fifth  of  the  total  world  supply.  Over  80  per  cent  of 
the  Australian  wool  is  merino,  although  there  is  being  produced  an 
increasing  quantity  of  crossbred  wools,  obtained  chiefly  by  crossing 
the  merino  with  the  Leicester  and  Lincoln.  This  tendency  to  substi- 
tute crossbreds  for  merinos  seems  bound  to  develop  rapidly  in 
Australia,  owing  to  the  profits  of  the  mutton  trade  and  the  encroach- 
ment of  small  squatters  on  the  big  ranches.  The  principal  merino 
wools  of  Australia  are  classed  as  Port  Phillip  or  Victoria,  Sydney  or 
New  South  Wales,  Queensland,  West  Australian  or  Swan  River,  and 
Adelaide  or  South  Australian. 

Port  Phillip  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  best  wools  in  the  world, 

[33] 


34  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

ranking  almost  as  high  as  the  best  Saxony  merino.  It  is  used  for  the 
finest  woolens  and  worsteds,  and  it  is  especially  in  demand  by 
makers  of  very  fine  woolen  yarns,  because  of  its  exceptional  felting 
qualities.  Sydney  wools  also  have  excellent  felting  qualities  and 
are  very  soft  and  elastic,  but  they  are  inferior  in  color  and  strength 
to  the  Port  Phillip  sorts.  Queensland  wools  are  soft  and  of  good 
color,  but  are  inferior  in  strength  and  elasticity.  West  Australian 
wools  are  comparatively  coarse,  while  Adelaide  wools,  although  of 
good  quality,  are  very  dirty,  with  sand  and  excessive  yolk  or  grease. 

In  addition  to  these  varieties,  there  is  a  very  good  merino  wool 
produced  in  Tasmania,  which  is  commonly  known  as  Van  wool.  It 
is  a  very  clean  white  in  color,  and  is  therefore  especially  suitable 
for  goods  which  are  to  be  dyed  in  light  shades.  Australian  cross- 
breds  are  classed  as  comebacks  or  extra  fine,  fine,  medium  and 
coarse.  The  first-named,  as  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
is  a  variety  obtained  by  breeding  a  crossbred  back  to  the  merino 
side.  It  is  practically  equivalent  to  merino  wool  in  quality,  although 
averaging  somewhat  longer  in  staple. 

New  Zealand  produces  annually  about  117,000,000  pounds  of 
wool.  Fully  80  per  cent  of  this  is  crossbred  wool,  obtained  by  cross- 
ing merinos  with  Romney  Marsh,  Leicester  or  mutton  breeds.  The 
New  Zealand  pure  merino  wool  is  somewhat  coarser  than  the  finest 
Australian,  but  otherwise  equal  to  it  in  quality.  South  Africa  (in- 
cluding Cape  Colony,  the  Orange  Free  State,  the  Transvaal  and 
Natal)  produces  about  200,000,000  pounds  of  wool  annually.  Most 
of  the  South  African  product  is  a  cross  between  the  merino  and 
native  breeds,  and  is  inferior  to  Australian  wool  in  strength,  wavi- 
ness,  elasticity  and  felting  quality.  But  the  best  variety  of  South 
African  merino  wool,  known  as  Cape  Snow  White,  is  of  exceptionally 
good  color  and  is  equal  in  quality  to  the  finest  Australian. 

Among  the  other  wool  producing  areas  of  the  British  Empire 
are  India,  Canada  and  the  Falkland  Islands.  The  production  of 
British  India  is  estimated  at  about  60,000,000  pounds  annually.  This 
includes  some  of  the  best  known  varieties  of  carpet  wools,  such  as 
Joria,  Vicanere  and  Kandahar.  Canada  produces  about  11,000,000 


THIS  Is  How  WOOL  LOOKS  WHEN  RECEIVED  AT  THE 

MILL.     IT  COMES  IN  BAGS  IN  WHICH  THE  FLEECES 

ARE  TIED  TOGETHER,  WAITING  TO  BE  SORTED  INTO 

THEIR  VARIOUS  QUALITIES 


The  World's  Wool  Production  37 


pounds  annually,  mostly  from  sheep  of  the  mutton  varieties.  The 
production  of  the  Falkland  Islands  is  comparatively  small,  about 
4,000,000  pounds  annually;  but  most  of  it  is  Cheviot  wool  of  good 
quality  and  especially  suitable  for  the  making  of  tweeds  and  similar 
fabrics.  In  the  United  Kingdom  the  annual  production  of  wool 
amounts  to  between  120,000,000  and  125,000,000  pounds.  Most  of 
this  comes  from  sheep  of  the  Down  and  Cheviot  breeds  or  from 
crosses  between  these  and  the  Lincoln  and  Leicester  breeds. 

In  South  America  the  total  annual  production  of  wool  amounts 
to  about  400,000,000  pounds,  most  of  which  is  produced  in  Argentine 
and  Uruguay.  In  Uruguay  about  80  per  cent  of  the  wool  is 
from  fine  merinos,  chiefly  of  the  French  Rambouillet  breed.  The 
remainder,  for  the  most  part,  is  from  crossbreds  of  merino  ewes 
with  Lincoln  or  Romney  Marsh  rams.  About  75  per  cent  of  the 
Argentine  wools  are  crossbreds  of  merino  with  Lincoln  or  mutton 
breeds,  the  rest  being  pure  merino.  Generally  speaking,  the 
South  American  merino  wool  is  much  more  burry,  greasy  and 
dirty  than  the  Australian  varieties.  The  wools  from  Uruguay 
are  usually  referred  to  as  Montevideo  wools,  while  those  from 
the  Argentine  are  usually  referred  to  as  Buenos  Ayres  wools. 
The  former,  on  the  whole,  are  the  more  desirable.  There  is  in  addi- 
tion a  considerable  production  of  wool  in  Tierra  del  Fuego,  known 
as  Punta  Arenas  wool,  from  the  port  of  shipment.  This  is  some- 
what coarser,  more  tender  and  more  kempy  than  the  Montevideo  and 
Buenos  Ayres  varieties. 

In  the  United  States  the  annual  production  of  wool  averages 
between  250,000,000  and  300,000,000  pounds.  Little  more  than  half 
of  this  is  merino.  The  chief  wool  growing  states,  in  the  order  of 
their  .importance,  are  Wyoming,  Montana,  New  Mexico,  Idaho,  Ohio, 
Oregon,  Utah,  California,  Michigan,  Colorado,  Texas,  Pennsylvania, 
Wisconsin,  Missouri,  Nevada,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Arizona,  New  York, 
Illinois,  South  Dakota,  Washington,  Kentucky,  West  Virginia,  Minne- 
sota, North  Dakota,  Virginia,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Maine,  Tennessee 
and  Vermont.  Of  these,  Wyoming  and  Montana  produce  between 
them  about  70,000,000  pounds  annually. 


38  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

It  is  generally  taken  for  granted  that  the  production  of  wool  in 
the  United  States  is  declining,  but  this  assumption  is  not  borne  out 
by  the  records.  Figures  of  production  covering  the  last  thirty  years 
show,  on  the  whole,  a  fluctuating  tendency.  For  example,  from  a 
high  point  of  over  348,000,000  pounds  in  1893,  production  declined  to 
about  259,000,000  pounds  in  1897.  Then  it  gradually  rose  to  more 
than  316,000,000  pounds  in  1902,  slumping  suddenly  to  about  287,- 
500,000  pounds  in  1903,  rising  again  steadily  to  328,000,000  pounds 
in  1909,  and  again  declining  to  about  229,000,000  pounds  in  1919. 
Production  in  1920,  which  amounted  to  about  259,000,000  pounds, 
was  practically  the  same  as  the  production  for  1897. 

Among  the  other  wool  producing  countries  of  the  world,  the  most 
important  is  Russia,  which  yields  nearly  400,000,000  pounds  an- 
nually— or  did  before  the  revolution.  A  large  proportion  of  this  is 
carpet  wool.  The  Russian  carpet  wool  imported  into  this  country 
is  generally  known  as  Donskoi  wool,  although  strictly  speaking 
Donskoi  is  the  name  of  a  special  variety  of  Russian  wool.  It  is  used 
for  the  best  domestic  velvet  and  Axminster  carpets.  Russia  pro- 
duces also  a  considerable  amount  of  good  clothing  (merino)  wools, 
the  best  of  which  are  known  as  Odessa  wools.  These  are  strong, 
fairly  fine  wools,  of  exceptionally  good  color.  Georgia,  which  for 
convenience  may  be  included  in  Russia,  produces  some  of  the  finest 
carpet  wools  imported  into  this  country.  The  production  of  Turkey 
and  Asia  Minor  is  practically  all  carpet  wool.  Outside  of  Turkey 
and  Russia,  Continental  Europe  produces  altogether  about  265,000,- 
000  pounds  of  wool  annually. 

More  than  half  the  total  world  production  of  wool  is  consumed 
by  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  Consumption  of  wool  in  the 
United  States  in  recent  years  has  averaged  around  700,000,000 
pounds,  while  consumption  in  the  United  Kingdom  averages  between 
800,000,000  and  850,000,000  pounds.  It  is  worth  noting  that  con- 
sumption of  wool  in  the  United  States  is  more  than  twice  the  domes- 
tic production,  while  consumption  of  wool  in  the  United  Kingdom  is 
considerably  less  than  the  total  production  of  the  British  Empire. 
This  exactly  reverses  the  situation  existing  in  cotton.  The  other 


The  World's  Wool  Production  39 

chief  consuming  countries  are  France,  Germany,  the  former  empire 
of  Austria-Hungary  and  Italy.  The  precise  figures  for  these  coun- 
tries are  not  available,  but  they  may  be  estimated  as  approximately 
480,000,000  pounds  for  France,  400,000,000  pounds  for  Germany, 
60,000,000  pounds  for  Italy,  and  140,000,000  pounds  for  the  countries 
comprising  the  former  Austro-Hungarian  Empire. 


CHAPTER  V 
CLASSIFICATION  AND  MARKETING  OF  WOOL 

MOST  of  the  world's  sheep  are  raised  either  on  large  ranches  or 
on  small  farms  in  connection  with  dairy  or  other  produce.    The 
former  is  the  prevailing  method  in  Australia,  South  America 
and  the  western  United  States,  while  the  latter  prevails  in  such  regions 
as  the  Middle  West,  England  and  Continental  Europe.     In  addition, 
large  numbers  of  sheep  are  raised  by  primitive  pastoral  methods  in 
remote  mountain  districts,  such  as  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  the 
Pyrenees,  and  the  plateaus  of  Central  Asia.    These,  as  a  rule,  are  un- 
improved native  varieties,  and  their  wool  comes  under  the  general  head- 
ing of  carpet  wool. 

The  gradual  reduction  of  great  sheep  runs  by  the  increase  of  pop- 
ulation in  sparsely  settled  territories  creates  a  serious  problem  as 
to  the  world's  future  wool  supplies.  A  farmer  raising  from  20 
to  100  sheep  cannot  do  it  as  cheaply  as  a  rancher  raising  20,000  to 
30,000  sheep.  In  fact,  the  small  profits  of  sheep  raising,  as  compared 
with  other  farm  products,  is  the  main  reason  for  its  decline  in  farming 
districts.  For  this  reason  alone  the  disappearance  of  the  big  ranches 
will  in  all  probability  mean  much  higher  prices  for  wool.  Besides,  the 
necessity  of  obtaining  a  given  quantity  of  wool  from  200  to  300  farmers 
instead  of  from  one  rancher  will  increase  the  difficulty  of  marketing 
and  classifying  wool. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  may  be  a  great  saving  through  the  better 
care  which  farmers,  properly  instructed  in  scientific  methods,  can  give 
to  small  flocks.  At  present  sheep  raising  is,  in  a  financial  sense,  an 
extremely  hazardous  occupation,  for  the  loss  of  sheep  through  various 
causes,  especially  on  the  large  ranches,  is  very  high.  In  Australia 
and  the  Southwest  of  the  United  States,  for  example,  there  are  fre- 
quent and  heavy  losses  through  drought.  In  states  such  as  Montana 
and  Wyoming  thousands  of  sheep  may  bo  killed  in  a  blizzard.  At 
lambing  time,  particularly  if  the  weather  is  bad,  there  is  a  great  loss 
of  lambs.  The  loss  on  ranches  from  this  cause  alone  averages  over 

[40] 


Classification  and  Marketing  of  Wool  41 

10  per  cent.  Then  there  is  loss  through  wild  animals,  poisonous  plants, 
disease  and  other  causes. 

Generally  speaking,  the  raising  of  wool  for  market  involves  little 
effort  except  that  involved  in  the  care  of  the  sheep.  A  periodical 
disinfectant  dip,  for  the  purpose  of  killing  ticks  and  other  parasites, 
is  about  the  only  treatment  necessary  before  shearing.  In  some  lo- 
calities, particularly  in  England,  it  is  customary  to  wash  the  sheep 
before  shearing.  This  washing  removes  some  of  the  dirt  and  grease 
from  the  wool  and  makes  it  lighter  for  shipment,  but  as  a  subsequent 
scouring  is  always  necessary  this  preliminary  washing  of  sheep  is  not 
generally  considered  worth  while.  Wool  from  sheep  which  have  been 
washed  before  shearing  is  known  in  the  markets  as  washed  wool. 

Originally  wool  was  obtained  from  the  sheep's  back  by  the  simple 
process  of  pulling  it  out,  as  feathers  are  obtained  from  a  dead  bird, 
and  this  barbarous  custom  still  survives  in  many  isolated  parts  of  the 
world.  But  almost  universally  nowadays  the  wool  is  sheared  off 
either  with  a  hand  shears  or  by  machine.  The  hand  shears  naturally 
is  the  method  employed  on  small  farms,  but  on  the  ranches  machine 
shearing  is  the  rule.  Shearing  time  varies  in  different  parts  of  the 
world — April  and  May  in  the  United  States,  for  instance,  September 
and  October  in  Australia,  November  in  New  Zealand,  January  in  Tas- 
mania, June  and  July  in  Great  Britain,  and  so  onT^v. 

When  the  shearing  is  properly  done  the  whole  fleece  from  the 
sheep  holds  together  in  one  sheet.  This  is  skirted  to  remove  the  stained 
britch  wool  and  the  dirty  wool  round  the  edges  of  the  fleece.  It  is  then 
rolled  up,  tied,  and  packed  in  bales  for  shipment.  In  most  countries 
the  sheep  farmers,  especially  the  small  farmers,  make  no  attempt  to 
classify  their  wool,  the  classification  being  done  by  the  wool  dealers. 
But  in  Australia  it  is  customary  to  classify  the  wool  on  the  ranch 
before  shipment,  because  the  ranchers  as  a  rule  can  afford  to  employ 
expert  sorters  and  because  sheep  breeding  in  Australia  is  sufficiently 
standardized  to  permit  some  approach  to  an  exact  classification. 

The  accurate  classification  of  wool  presents  almost  insurmountable 
difficulties.  The  qualities  of  wool  vary  not  only  with  the  different 
breeds  of  sheep  but  with  the  health  of  the  sheep,  with  variations  in 


42  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

soil  and  climate,  and  with  innumerable  other  conditions.  Pure  bred 
merino  sheep  from  South  Australia,  Tasmania,  Uruguay  and  Mon- 
tana, for  example,  will  present  so  many  differences  as  to  be  practically 
different  varieties.  The  wool  of  sheep  raised  in  the  rich  pastures  of 
Ohio,  to  give  another  instance,  will  differ  altogether  from  wool  of 
exactly  the  same  variety  of  sheep  raised  on  the  arid  lands  of  New 
Mexico.  And  when  it  is  remembered  that  farmers  in  the  same  locality 
will,  cross  and  intercross  different  breeds  of  sheep  without  reference  to 
any  accepted  standard,  it  can  readily  be  understood  that  anything 
like  an  accurate  classification  of  wool  is  next  to  impossible.  When  the 
New  York  Wool  Exchange  was  established  some  years  ago  it  denned 
two  hundred  grades  of  American  wool,  but  found  after  a  time  that 
this  number  of  grades  was  not  nearly  sufficient. 

A  rough  classification,  generally  adopted  for  convenience,  divides 
all  wools  into  combing,  clothing  and  carpet  wools.  At  one  time  this 
classification  was  loosely  accurate,  as  only  long  staple  wools  could  be 
combed.  But  nowadays  it  is  possible  to  comb  both  short  staple  and 
long  staple  wool.  However,  the  term  combing  wool  is  generally  under- 
stood to  mean  a  long  staple  wool  of  good  quality.  All  shorter  staple 
wools  suitable  for  clothing  are  grouped  under  the  heading  of  clothing 
wools.  These  terms  are  particularized  by  adding  the  breed  of  the 
sheep  and  the  locality  in  which  the  sheep  was  raised. 

In  Australia,  where  the  classification  of  wool  is  more  nearly  on 
a  scientific  basis  than  in  any  other  country,  merino  wools  are  classified 
as  super  combing  or  supers,  first  combing,  second  combing,  and  cloth- 
ing. Crossbreds  are  classified  as  comebacks  or  super  crossbreds,  first 
crossbred  combing,  second  crossbred  combing,  and  third  crossbred 
combing.  Pure  bred  long  wool  sheep  are  classified  as  extra  luster 
hoggs  and  luster  wethers.  In  other  countries  there  are  no  such  defi- 
nite classifications,  and  wools  from  these  countries  are  quoted  on  the 
market  in  some  such  loose  manner  as  Argentine  high  quarter  blood  or 
Argentine  Lincoln. 

In  the  United  States  there  is  a  great  variety  of  classifications,  but 
none  that  is  accurate  or  comprehensive.  There  are  a  number  of  terms, 
however,  which  are  in  general  use  in  the  trade  and  have  a  fairly  definite 


HERE  Is  SHOWN  A  SERIES  OF  CARDING  MACHINES. 

WOOL  Is  BEING  FED  INTO  THE  NEAREST  ONE,  TO  BE 

STRAIGHTENED  OUT  BY  THOUSANDS  OF  SMALL  TEETH 

ON  REVOLVING  DRUMS 


Classification  and  Marketing  of  Wool  45 


meaning.  For  example,  Eastern  and  Middle  Western  wools  are  com- 
monly classified  as  fine  delaine,  XX,  half  blood,  three-eighths  blood 
and  quarter  blood.  Both  fine  delaine  and  XX  are  pure  merino  wools. 
The  other  terms,  although  meaning  strictly  the  proportion  of  merino 
blood,  are  used  to  indicate  the  quality  of  the  wool  without  reference 
to  the  amount  of  merino  blood  in  the  sheep.  Wools  from  the  Northwest 
are  known  as  Territory  wools  and  are  classified  as  fine  staple,  fine 
medium  staple  and  fine  medium  clothing.  Texas  wools  are  classified 
as  fine  fall,  medium  fall,  twelve  months  and  eight  months.  California 
wools  are  classified  as  spring,  northern  and  fall ;  New  Mexico  wools  as 
Nos.  1,  2,  3,  4,  and  so  forth. 

The  British  method  of  classification  ignores  all  these  subtleties 
and  describes  wool  according  to  the  number  of  the  yarn  it  will  spin, 
such  as  40's,  60's,  70's  and  so  on.  The  meaning  of  these  yarn  numbers 
will  be  described  in  a  later  chapter.  All  wools  are  quoted  on  the  Eng- 
lish market  in  this  way,  without  any  other  qualification  except,  as  a 
rule,  the  name  of  the  region  from  which  the  wool  comes,  as  for 
example,  Geelong  60's  or  Sydney  80's.  The  60's  wool  is  taken  as  a 
standard  for  purposes  of  comparison,  like  Middling  Upland  cotton  or 
Sinshiu  No.  1  silk.  As  the  working  and  spinning  qualities  of  wool  are 
the  really  important  things  to  know  about  it,  this  system  of  classifica- 
tion is  about  as  useful  and  accurate  as  any  that  it  is  possible  to  devise. 

All  wools  sheared  from  the  sheep  are  known  as  fleece  wools.  Most 
of  them  are  sheared  from  full-grown  sheep  at  regular  seasons,  but  a 
certain  proportion  of  them  are  obtained  at  special  times  and  are  known 
by  special  names.  Lamb's  wool,  for  instance,  is  wool  sheared  from 
sheep  less  than  a  year  old;  hogg  or  hogget  wool  is  from  a  year-old 
sheep  which  has  not  previously  been  sheared;  wether  wool  is  a  term 
applied  frequently  in  the  United  States  to  wool  from  a  castrated  male 
sheep,  but  is  used  elsewhere  to  mean  the  wool  of  any  sheep  from  which 
the  hogget  fleece  has  been  sheared  previously. 

In  addition  to  fleece  wools  there  is  a  large  class  of  wools  obtained 
from  the  skins  of  slaughtered  sheep  and  known  as  pulled  wools.  Us- 
ually these  wools  are  loosened  from  the  skin  by  means  of  sodium  sul- 
phate or  lime,  although  in  Mazamet,  in  the  South  of  France,  which  is 


46  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

the  center  of  the  world's  trade  in  sheepskins,  they  are  loosened  by  a 
rotting  process.  The  increasing  custom  of  breeding  sheep  for  mutton 
as  well  as  for  wool  is  leading  naturally  to  an  increase  in  the  production 
of  pulled  wool.  On  the  whole  this  class  of  wool  is  decidedly  inferior  to 
fleece  wool  grade  for  grade. 

In  judging  the  market  value  of  wool  the  most  important  considera- 
tions are  condition,  quality,  strength  and  length  of  staple,  and  color. 
The  condition  of  wool  refers  to  the  amount  of  grease  and  dirt  it  con- 
tains. All  wool  contains  a  certain  amount  of  fatty  matter  from  the 
sheep's  skin,  as  well  as  dust,  burrs,  seeds,  excrement  and  other  dirt. 
The  amount  of  fatty  matter — known  as  grease  or  yolk — contained  in 
a  fleece  depends  upon  the  breed  of  the  sheep  and  the  conditions  under 
which  it  has  been  raised.  Wool,  therefore,  is  described  as  light  con- 
ditioned or  heavy  conditioned,  and  the  percentage  of  weight  it  loses 
when  it  is  scoured  is  known  as  the  shrinkage.  The  shrinkage  of  dif- 
ferent classes  of  wool  may  vary  anywhere  from  10  to  75  per  cent. 
The  average  shrinkage  of  pure  English  long  wools  is  about  30  per 
cent,  of  medium  crossbreds  about  40  per  cent,  and  of  pure  merinos 
about  50  to  60  per  cent.  When  the  price  of  wool  is  quoted  on  a 
scoured  basis  it  means  a  price  based  on  the  estimated  shrinkage  of 
the  wool  in  scouring.  Thus  a  price  of  $1  a  pound  scoured  basis  for 
merino  wool  that  shrinks  50  per  cent  would  mean  a  price  of  50  cents 
a  pound  for  the  same  wool  in  the  grease.  Quality,  as  the  term  is 
used  in  the  raw  wool  trade,  refers  to  the  fineness  of  the  fiber. 

Wool  is  marketed  in  a  wide  variety  of  ways.  In  Australia  and 
New  Zealand  the  prevailing  method  of  marketing  wools  is  by  public 
auction,  and  this  too  is  the  method  followed  in  England  for  all  except 
domestic  wools.  The  auctioning  system  is  followed  to  a  limited  extent 
in  South  Af  ricfa,  South  America  and  the  ranching  country  of  the  United 
States,  but  the  method  usually  practised  in  these  countries  is  private 
sale  by  growers  to  local  dealers,  manufacturers,  or  large  merchants  or 
commission  houses  in  the  central  markets.  London  is  perhaps  the 
world's  greatest  wool  market.  Auctions  of  wool  are  held  there  in 
January,  March,  May,  July,  September  and  November.  For  a  long 
time  the  bulk  of  Australasian  wools  were  sold  at  these  London  auctions, 


Classification  and  Marketing  of  Wool  47 

but  in  recent  years  the  auctions  at  Melbourne,  Sydney,  Brisbane,  Gee- 
long  and  Adelaide  in  Australia  and  at  Wellington,  Napier  and  Christ- 
church  in  New  Zealand  have  been  accounting  for  most  of  the  Aus- 
tralasian clip,  although  a  considerable  amount  of  the  wool  sold  at 
these  auctions  is  eventually  resold  in  London. 

Liverpool  is  a  great  market  for  South  American  wools,  as  well  as 
for  carpet  wools,  mohair  and  alpaca.  The  auctions  are  held  there  in 
the  same  months  as  the  London  auctions,  and  are  timed  to  start  when 
the  London  auctions  close.  Antwerp  and  Bremen  are  the  chief  Conti- 
nental wool  markets,  the  former  dealing  principally  in  South  American 
wools  and  the  latter  chiefly  in  Australian  wools.  Havre  also  is  of  some 
importance  as  a  wool  market.  In  South  Africa  and  South  America 
foreign  buyers  or  their  representatives  purchase  the  wool  direct  from 
growers  or  local  dealers,  or  else  do  their  buying  in  the  open 
markets  of  Port  Elizabeth,  East  London,  Durban,  Buenos  Ayres,  Monte- 
video or  other  centers.  Some  of  the  big  growers  consign  their  wool 
unsold  to  the  auctions  at  Antwerp,  Liverpool  or  London;  but  this  is 
not  a  common  practice. 

Whether  wool  is  marketed  by  the  auction  system,  as  in  Australia^ 
or  by  private  treaty,  as  in  the  United  States,  the  bulk  of  it  finds  its 
way  into  the  hands  of  big  wool  merchants  in  important  trading  centers. 
These  merchants  have  buying  representatives  in  the  principal  wool 
markets  of  the  world  and  often  in  all  the  woolgrowing  regions  as  well. 
Not  infrequently  they  finance  growers  wholly  or  in  part.  Sometimes 
they  buy  the  wool  outright  and  sometimes  they  act  merely  as  com- 
mission agents,  buying  and  selling  the  wool  on  commission.  There  are 
some  cases  in  which  mills  buy  direct  from  growers  and  some  cases  in 
which  co-operative  organizations  of  growers  act  as  selling  agents  for 
their  members,  but  the  amount  of  wool  handled  in  this  way  is  com- 
paratively small.  Wool  sales  all  over  the  world  are  usually  spot  trans- 
actions for  cash. 

In  England  there  is  a  class  of  merchants,  called  topmakers,  who  are 
an  intermediate  step  between  the  wool  merchant  and  the  manufacturer. 
Tops  is  a  name  applied  to  wool  from  which  the  short  and  broken  fibers 
have  been  combed  out.  The  topmakers  as  a  rule  have  the  combing 


48  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

done  for  them  by  firms  which  make  a  specialty  of  such  work,  and  they 
deal  only  in  combed  wool.  The  short  and  broken  fibers  rejected  in 
the  combing  are  known  as  noils.  The  uses  of  these  will  be  dealt  with 
in  a  later  chapter.  English  dealers  and  manufacturers  for  the 
most  part  buy  combing  wools  on*  the  basis  of  the  yield  of  tops  and  noils. 
American  and  Continental  European  manufacturers  and  dealers  buy 
wool  on  the  basis  of  the  clean  scoured  yield.  Thus,  for  example,  a  price 
of  40  cents  a  pound  for  grease  wool  on  the  spot  would  be  estimated  to 
work  out  at,  say,  $1.15  a  pound  clean  landed  basis. 

Boston  is  the  principal  wool  market  of  the  United  States.  It  owes 
this  position  to  its  proximity  to  the  woolen  manufacturing  industry, 
which  is  centered  in  New  England.  Philadelphia  and  Chicago  come 
next  in  importance.  New  York  also  is  of  some  importance  because  of 
its  position  as  a  shipping  point  and  its  proximity  to  many  large  mills. 


CHAPTER  VI 
PREPARATORY  MANUFACTURING  PROCESSES 

WOOL  reaches  the  mill  in  fleeces  packed  in  bales  of  100  to 
500  pounds  each.  As  the  wool  from  different  parts  of  a 
sheep  varies  in  quality,  each  fleece  contains  a  number  of 
different  qualities,  and  the  first  process  necessary  after  the  wool 
reaches  the  mill  is  to  sort  it  out.  This  is  a  job  requiring  not  only 
expert  knowledge  of  wool,  but  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
requirements  of  the  mill.  Any  two  equally  expert  sorters  are  apt 
to  sort  the  same  fleece  differently.  Again,  a  mill  may  sort  a  fleece 
into  four  classes,  while  another  mill,  making  a  different  type  of 
goods,  may  sort  the  same  fleece  into  ten  classes.  Furthermore, 
fleeces  from  different  markets  must  be  sorted  differently.  An  Aus- 
tralian merino  fleece,  for  example,  which  has  been  skirted  and 
britched  before  shipment  and  in  which  the  wool  is  fairly  uniform, 
requires  very  little  sorting,  while  a  dirty,  unskirted  domestic  fleece 
may  need  a  good  deal. 

Generally  speaking,  the  best  wool  is  that  which  comes  from  the 
shoulders  and  sides  of  the  sheep.  Next  in  the  order  of  value  is  that 
from  the  lower  part  of  the  back,  the  loin  and  back  and  the  upper 
part  of  the  legs.  Wool  from  the  neck,  britch,  belly,  chest,  head, 
throat  and  lower  part  of  legs  is  all  inferior.  When  the  fleece  is 
deeply  skirted  before  being  shipped  to  market,  as  is  customary  in 
Australia,  practically  all  this  inferior  wool  is  removed.  A  light 
skirting  may  leave  a  certain  amount  of  it  in  the  fleece,  while  an 
unskirted  fleece  contains  all  of  it.  Apart  from  this  rough-and-ready 
classification,  the  wool  sorter  has  no  guide  except  his  own  judgment 
and  his  familiarity  with  the  manufacturer's  requirements. 

In  the  operation  of  sorting  the  fleece  usually  is  spread  out  on  a 
table,  the  center  of  which  is  covered  with  wire  netting.  Working 
inward  from  the  edges  of  the  fleece,  the  sorter  tears  out  different 
parts  with  his  hands  and  places  them  in  separate  piles,  according  to 
the  different  qualities.  The  fleece  is  banged  and  shaken  on  the  table 

[49] 


50  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

so  that  a  good  deal  of  the  dust  and  loose  dirt  in  it  falls  through  the 
wire  netting.  In  addition  the  sorter  removes  from  the  fleece  with 
his  hands  all  lumps  of  dirt,  matted  fibers,  large  burrs  and  other 
roughage  which  can  be  removed  in  this  way  without  too  much  ex- 
penditure of  time  and  labor.  Low  grade  wools,  especially  carpet 
wools  from  Asia  and  Southeastern  Europe,  are  likely  not  only  to  be 
excessively  dirty  but  to  contain  the  germs  of  anthrax  and  other 
infectious  diseases,  so  that  the  sorter  has  to  take  great  precautions 
in  handling  them. 

Besides  dust,  burrs,  fodder  and  other  foreign  matter,  all  wools 
contain  a  considerable  proportion  of  suint  or  yolk,  usually  known  as 
grease.  The  latter  is  partly  perspiration  and  partly  a  fatty  exuda- 
tion from  the  sheep's  body,  which  seems  to  serve  the  purpose  of 
protecting  the  wool  on  the  sheep's  back  from  injury  by  the  weather. 
All  dirt  and  grease  must  be  removed  before  the  wool  can  be  worked 
properly.  This  is  done  as  a  rule  by  scouring  the  wool  in  warm 
water,  soap  and  a  mild  alkali,  such  as  ammonium  carbonate  or  some 
similar  substance.  In  the  process  of  scouring  the  wool  passes 
through  three  or  four  vats  filled  with  the  scouring  liquid.  Each  vat 
is  equipped  with  automatic  rakes,  which  stir  the  wool  in  the  liquid, 
and  with  a  set  of  rollers  which  squeeze  the  liquid  from  the  wool 
before  it  passes  to  the  next  vat. 

Great  care  and  skill  are  necessary  to  avoid  injury  to  the  wool  in 
scouring,  as  the  fibers  may  easily  be  injured  by  too  much  stirring,  by 
water  that  is  a  little  too  hot  or  an  alkali  that  is  a  little  too  strong. 
Some  big  manufacturers  employ  what  is  known  as  the  solvent  system 
of  scouring.  By  this  system  the  wool  is  treated  with  some  chemical 
agent,  such  as  ether,  naphtha,  benzine,  alcohol  or  carbon  bisulphide. 
This  system  has  the  advantage  of  being  economical,  for  the  chemical 
solvent,  after  being  distilled,  can  be  used  over  again  and  the  by- 
products of  the  scouring  can  be  easily  recovered.  It  also  avoids  the 
danger  of  injury  to  the  wool  fibers  from  the  stirring  about  which  is 
necessary  in  the  ordinary  scouring  bath.  But  it  is  advantageous 
only  to  big  mills  which  handle  great  quantities  of  wool. 

After  the  scouring  the  wool  is  carried  on  a  belt  to  the  drying 


THIS  Is  PART  OF  THE  SPINNING  PROCESS.    THE  WOOL 

HAS  BEEN  STRAIGHTENED  AND  TWISTED  INTO  YARN, 

WHICH    THE    PICTURE    SHOWS    BEING    WOUND    ON 

TO  BOBBINS 


Preparatory  Manufacturing  Processes  53 

chamber,  where  most  of  the  moisture  is  removed  by  bringing  it  into 
contact  with  warm  air.  Sometimes  the  drying  is  done  by  a  cen- 
trifugal machine  known  as  a  hydro-extractor.  Wool  is  never  made 
absolutely  dry,  for  absolutely  dry  wool  tends  to  kink  and  curl  and 
break  in  the  working.  A  certain  amount  of  moisture  is  always 
allowed  to  remain,  the  standard  allowance  being  16  per  cent.  But 
merino  wools,  which  are  comparatively  short  and  curly,  are  allowed 
to  retain  more  than  16  per  cent  of  moisture,  and,  in  fact,  are  not 
usually  put  through  any  drying  process  at  all. 

When  the  wool  contains  large  burrs  and  other  matter  which  does 
not  come  out  in  the  scouring  it  is  put  through  a  burring  machine, 
which  picks  out  the  larger  impurities.  When  the  burrs  are  small 
and  numerous  and  there  is  a  large  amount  of  other  vegetable  matter 
present,  the  burring  process  is  not  sufficient  and  the  wool  must  be 
put  through  a  supplementary  process  known  as  carbonizing.  This 
consists  of  steeping  the  wool  in  a  solution  of  sulphuric  or  hydro- 
chloric acid  and  subsequently  drying  it  in  an  oven  heated  to  about 
160  or  170  degrees  Fahrenheit.  The  acid  attacks  all  the  vegetable 
matter  and  reduces  it  to  a  state  resembling  charcoal.  Sometimes  the 
carbonizing  is  done  with  hydrochloric  acid  gas  instead  of  with  an 
acid  solution.  This  method  is  known  as  dry  carbonizing.  The  car- 
bonized matter  easily  crumbles  into  dust,  which  may  be  shaken  or 
blown  out  of  the  wool. 

After  being  burred  and  carbonized  the  wool  is  blown  through 
pipes  or  carried  on  trucks  into  the  carding  room.  The  subsequent 
processes  depend  largely  upon  whether  it  is  to  be  made  into  woolen 
or  worsted  goods.  Fundamentally  the  difference  between  woolens 
and  worsteds  is  that  in  woolen  yarns  the  fibers  intercross  and  are 
mixed  up  with  one  another  in  a  more  or  less  haphazard  way,  while 
in  worsted  yarns  the  fibers  all  lie  parallel  to  one  another.  Formerly 
it  was  practicable  to  comb  only  long  staple  wools,  and  worsteds  con- 
sequently were  made  only  from  such  wools.  But  some  modern  comb- 
ing machines  can  comb  wools  of  any  length,  and  as  a  result  worsteds 
can  be  and  are  made  from  both  long  and  short  staple  wools,  although 
long  staple  wools  are  most  commonly  used. 


54  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

In  the  woolen  trade,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  worsted  trade,  it 
is  a  common  practice  to  dye  the  wool  after  scouring.  Yellow-tinted 
and  discolored  wools,  especially  if  they  are  intended  for  goods  which 
are  to  be  finished  white  or  dyed  in  light  colors,  are  sometimes  sub- 
mitted to  a  blueing  or  bleaching  process  before  dyeing.  The  blueing 
process  for  yellow-tinted  wools  consists  in  treating  them  with  a 
dilute  solution  of  an  acid  blue  or  violet  coloring  matter,  which  is 
complementary  to  the  yellow  and  unites  with  it  to  form  a  neutral 
tint.  Wool  is  bleached  usually  with  sulphur  fumes.  Sulphurous 
acid  and  hydrogen  peroxide  are  used  also  to  some  extent. 

Whether  the  wool  is  dyed  in  the  stock  or  not,  the  next  process  is 
the  mixing  or  blending.  This  is  practised  chiefly  in  the  woolen 
trade.  Its  object  is  either  to  obtain  a  certain  quality  of  yarn  from 
certain  blends  of  raw  stock  or  else  to  produce  certain  colors.  Every 
manufacturer  finds  by  experiment  that  various  blends  of  wool  will 
produce  characteristic  results,  and  he  develops  his  own  formulas  for 
achieving  the  effects  in  which  he  specializes.  For  certain  kinds  of 
goods  the  raw  wool  is  mixed  with  cotton  or  shoddy.  Sometimes  a 
small  percentage — as  little  as  5  per  cent — of  strong  long-staple 
cotton,  such  as  Peruvian  cotton,  is  blended  with  the  wool  in  order 
to  lend  strength  to  warp  yarns.  By  blending  different  colors  in  the 
raw  stock,  various  plain  and  mixed  color  effects  are  obtained  in 
the  finished  goods. 

Either  before  or  after  mixing — but  usually  before — the  wool  is 
sprayed  lightly  with  oil,  so  that  it  will  work  more  smoothly  and 
evenly  through  the  machines.  Olive  oil  is  used  as  a  rule  for  this 
purpose.  The  cotton  is  then  fed  to  the  carding  machine.  This  con- 
sists essentially  of  two  revolving  cylinders,  both  of  which  are  cov- 
ered with  fine  wire  teeth.  The  wool  is  fed  to  these  cards  automati- 
cally from  hoppers.  The  cylindrical  cards  revolve  in  opposite  direc- 
tions, so  that  some  of  the  wool  fibers  are  drawn  forward  while  others 
are  drawn  back.  As  a  result  the  mass  of  wool  fed  to  the  carding 
machine  is  brushed  out  into  a  thin  flat  sheet,  resembling  a  sheet  of 
cotton  batting.  This  sheet  is  condensed  into  a  soft,  narrow  band  or 


Preparatory  Manufacturing  Processes  55 

rope,  known  as  a  roving.  It  is  then  wound  on  large  spools  or  bobbins 
and  taken  to  the  spinning  room  to  be  spun  into  yarn. 

For  worsted  yarns  the  wool  has  to  go  through  even  more  pre- 
paratory processes  before  it  is  ready  to  be  spun.  As  a  rule  it  goes 
first  through  the  various  processes  already  described,  including 
carding  but  excluding  blending  and  dyeing.  Long  wools  of  seven 
inches  or  more  in  staple  are  prepared  for  combing  by  being  placed 
in  a  preparing  box  which  opens  up  the  wool,  combs  the  fibers  apart 
and  lays  them  parallel  or  nearly  so.  Shorter  wools  are  carded.  In 
either  case  the  wool  is  fed  next  to  the  gilling  machine,  which 
straightens  out  the  fibers  still  more.  It  comes  from  this  machine  in 
soft  strands,  which  are  taken  to  the  balling  machine  and  made  up 
into  large  balls,  each  containing  four  strands.  Eighteen  of  these 
balls  make  a  set  for  the  combing  machine.  Sometimes  before  the 
gilling  process  the  wool  is  submitted  to  a  second  scouring  operation, 
known  as  backwashing,  in  order  to  remove  any  dirt  that  may  remain 
after  the  carding.  This  is  done  frequently  by  topmakers  to  improve 
the  color  of  the  tops. 

The  operation  of  combing  consists  simply  of  straightening  out 
the  fibers  and  removing  the  short,  broken  and  knotted  ones.  Al- 
though it  sounds  simple  in  theory,  it  is  a  very  complicated  operation 
in  practice,  and  requires  highly  specialized  machinery.  The  most 
widely  used  combing  machines  are  the  Noble  comb  and  the  French 
or  Heilmann  comb.  The  latter  is  especially  adapted  for  combing 
short  wools,  and,  in  fact,  it  can  be  adjusted  to  any  length  of  staple. 
As  already  mentioned,  it  is  usual  to  use  long  staple  wool  for  worsted 
yarns,  but  for  certain  purposes,  such  as  knit  goods  or  soft  dress 
goods,  where  a  soft,  thick  yarn  is  desired,  wool  of  very  short  staple 
can  be  used  to  advantage.  The  chief  object  of  combing,  therefore, 
is  to  straighten  out  the  fibers  and  make  them  clean  and  uniform. 
From  the  combing  machine  the  wool  comes  in  the  form  of  a  fine 
sliver  known  as  a  top.  The  broken,  short,  knotted  and  otherwise 
imperfect  fibers  removed  by  the  comb  are  known  as  noils.  These 
are  sold  to  woolen  spinners  and  mixed  with  raw  stock  to  be  spun 
into  woolen  yarns. 


56  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

A  number  of  slivers  from  the  combing  machine  are  combined  into 
one  and  run  through  gill  boxes,  where  they  are  combed  again  and 
reduced  to  strands  of  uniform  size.  These  strands  are  wound  into 
large  balls,  which  are  known  as  finished  tops.  They  are  then  ready 
for  the  spinning  room.  Sometimes  the  wool  is  dyed  before  being 
sent  to  the  spinning  room — or  dyed  in  the  top,  as  it  is  called  in  the 
trade.  In  this  case  it  comes  back  to  be  gilled  and  recombed  before 
it  is  ready  to  be  spun. 


CHAPTER  VII 
SPINNING  WOOLEN  AND  WORSTED  YARNS 

SPINNING  is  the  process  by  which  the  wool  is  drawn  out  and 
twisted  into  thread.  In  the  modern  mill,  however,  the  drawing 
and  twisting  are  done  for  the  most  part  by  separate  machinery, 
so  that  the  term  spinning  is  applied  merely  to  the  twisting  part  of 
the  process.  The  amount  of  drawing  given  to  the  wool  before  it  is 
spun  depends  upon  the  size  and  nature  of  the  yarns  required.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  a  lot  of  drawing  is  done  for  worsted  yarns  and  very 
little  for  woolen  yarns.  The  strand  or  sliver  of  wool  from  the 
finished  worsted  top  may  be  subjected  to  as  many  as  nine  drawing 
processes,  each  of  which  draws  it  out  a  little  finer.  In  the  final 
drawing  process,  it  is  given  usually  a  very  slight  twist;  although 
when  a  soft  worsted  yarn  is  to  be  produced  this  twist  is  omitted. 
After  it  has  come  through  the  drawing  machine  the  worsted  strand 
is  known  as  a  roving.  For  woolen  yarns  the  sheets  of  wool  which 
come  from  the  carding  machine  are  reduced,  by  means  of  a  machine 
called  a  condenser,  into  soft  strands,  known  also  as  roving. 

Woolen  yarns,  and  some  worsted  yarns,  are  subjected  to  a  further 
drawing  in  the  spinning  process  proper.  The  original  method  of 
spinning,  presumably,  was  to  draw  out  the  wool  into  strands  with 
the  fingers  and  twist  it  into  thread.  If  one  will  do  this  with  a  piece 
of  cotton  wool,  for  example,  one  will  have  a  practical  illustration 
of  the  fundamental  principle  of  spinning.  This  method  of  course 
was  extremely  tedious,  and  eventually  somebody  hit  upon  the  idea 
of  using  a  stick  instead  of  the  fingers  for  twisting  the  thread.  The 
stick  was  operated  by  twirling  it  with  the  palm  of  the  hand  against 
the  thigh.  In  order  that  it  might  revolve  more  easily  and  rapidly  a 
piece  of  stone,  metal  or  other  heavy  substance  was  attached  to  the 
top  of  it.  Such  was  the  primitive  spindle,  used  the  world  over  until 
comparatively  modern  times. 

The  first  important  improvement  was  the  invention  of  the  spin- 
ning wheel.  This  originated  in  India  probably — at  what  period  is 
not  known — and  it  made  its  first  appearance  in  Europe  toward  the 

[57] 


58  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  It  consisted  of  a  spindle  to  twist  the 
thread,  a  wheel  to  turn  the  spindle  and  wind  the  finished  yarn,  and  a 
distaff  to  hold  the  raw  material.  At  first  the  distaff  was  held  in  the 
hand  or  stuck  in  the  belt  of  the  spinner,  but  later  it  was  attached  to 
the  machine.  Eventually  the  machine  was  operated  by  a  treadle 
instead  of  by  hand.  No  further  improvement  in  the  art  of  spinning 
was  made  until  1764,  when  James  Hargreaves  of  Blackburn,  Eng- 
land, invented  a  machine  known  as  the  spinning  jenny.  In  principle 
this  machine  was  the  same  as  the  old  spinning  wheel,  except  that  it 
twisted  several  threads  at  one  time. 

So  far  the  operations  of  drawing  and  twisting  had  always  been 
conducted  simultaneously,  and  this  principle  was  adhered  to  in  the 
Hargreaves  spinning  jenny.  But  in  1769  a  spinning  machine  on  a 
totally  different  principle  was  invented  by  a  man  named  Arkwright 
in  Preston,  England.  In  the  Arkwright  water  frame,  as  it  was 
called,  the  material  was  first  drawn  out  to  the  required  fineness  by 
a  series  of  rollers,  each  running  faster  than  the  one  behind  it,  and 
was  then  twisted  to  the  required  degree.  It  is  important  to  remem- 
ber that  worsted  yarns  are  spun  on  the  new  principle  embodied  in 
the  Arkwright  machine,  while  woolen  yarns  are  spun  on  the  old 
principle  embodied  in  the  Hargreaves  machine.  In  other  words, 
worsted  yarns  are  first  drawn  out  and  then  spun,  while  woolen  yarns 
are  drawn  and  spun  at  the  same  time. 

In  1779  Samuel  Crompton  of  Bolton,  England,  gave  to  the  world 
a  new  machine  called  the  Crompton  mule,  which  combined  the  best 
features  of  both  the  Hargreaves  and  the  Arkwright  machines — hence 
its  name.  The  spindles  of  the  mule  are  mounted  on  a  movable 
carriage  which  works  back  and  forth,  drawing  the  strands  of  wool 
as  they  are  paid  out  by  the  rollers,  twisting  them  into  yarn  and 
winding  the  yarn  on  bobbins.  All  woolen  yarns,  and  some  soft 
worsted  yarns,  are  spun  on  the  mule  type  of  machine.  For  spinning 
woolen  yarns  the  machine  is  equipped  with  only  one  set  of  rollers, 
which  merely  feed  the  roving  to  the  spindles.  The  drawing  is  done 
by  the  spindles  as  they  move  away  from  the  rollers,  twisting  the 
roving  into  yarn. 


THIS  PICTURE  SHOWS  PART  OF  A  MULE  SPINNING 
ROOM.     THE  PART  OF  THE  MACHINE  IN  THE  FORE- 
GROUND MOVES  BACK  AND  FORTH,  DRAWING  OUT  AND 
TWISTING  THE  YARN. 


Spinning  Woolen  and  Worsted  Yarns 


In  spinning  worsted  yarns  the  roving  is  drawn  out  through  a  series 
of  rollers,  as  in  the  Arkwright  machine,  and  then  twisted  into  yarn. 
Nowadays,  however,  the  mule  is  used  for  worsted  spinning  only  when 
soft  yarns  are  desired,  such  as  yarns  for  fine  knit  goods  and  certain 
fine  dress  goods.  Most  worsted  yarns  are  spun  on  a  type  of  machine 
known  as  a  cap-frame  or  ring-frame  spinner.  It  was  invented  by 
Richard  Roberts  in  1835  and  has  since  been  subjected  to  various 
improvements  which  have  made  it  the  most  rapid  and  economical 
type  of  spinning  machine.  The  essential  difference  between  this 
type  of  spinner  and  the  mule  is  that  the  spindles  of  the  former  are 
stationary.  The  cap-frame  is  faster  than  the  ring-frame,  but  pro- 
duces a  somewhat  rougher  yarn.  Both  spin  a  much  harder  yarn  than 
the  mule. 

Woolen  and  worsted  yarns,  like  cotton  yarns,  are  numbered  ac- 
cording to  size,  but  unfortunately  there  are  various  systems  of 
numbering  used  in  different  countries  and  there  is  no  standard 
system  which  is  generally  recognized.  In  the  United  States  woolen 
yarns  are  numbered,  as  a  rule,  either  according  to  the  "American 
run"  system  or  the  "Philadelphia  cut"  system.  The  former  is  based 
on  the  number  of  runs  of  1600  yards  that  weigh  a  pound.  Thus,  if 
a  run  of  1600  yards  weighs  one  pound  the  yarn  is  known  as  a  No.  1, 
while  if  ten  runs  of  1600  yards,  or  16,000  yards,  weigh  one  pound,  the 
yarn  is  known  as  a  No.  10.  The  Philadelphia  system  is  based  on 
the  number  of  cuts  of  300  yards  that  weigh  one  pound.  Thus  a  yarn 
weighing  ten  cuts,  or  3000  yards,  to  the  pound  would.be  a  No.  10 
yarn.  According  to  the  English  system  the  number  of  a  woolen 
yarn  is  the  number  of  skeins  or  hanks  of  1520  yards  each  that  weigh 
six  pounds.  There  are  also  French,  Prussian,  Viennese  and  other 
systems!  of  numbering  woolen  yarns. 

For  worsted  yarns  there  is  a  nearer  approach  to  a  standard 
system  of  numbering.  The  accepted  system  in  England  and  the 
United  States  is  based  on  the  number  of  hanks  of  560  yards  that 
weigh  one  pound.  Thus,  if  one  hank  of  560  yards  weighs  a  pound 
the  yarn  is  known  as  a  No.  1,  while  if  it  takes  ten  hanks,  or  5600 
yards,  to  weigh  a  pound  the  yarn  is  known  as  a  No.  10  —  and  so  on. 


62  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

Obviously  the  higher  the  number  the  finer  the  yarn.  Worsted  yarns 
have  been  spun  as  high  as  140's,  but  it  is  practically  impossible 
nowadays  to  find  wool  that  will  spin  higher  than  100's. 

Worsted  yarns  below  40's  are  described  as  coarse;  yarns  from 
40's  to  60's  as  medium,  and  yarns  from  60's  to  100's  as  fine.  But 
the  number  of  the  yarn  does  not  strictly  define  its  quality,  as  some 
very  fine,  soft,  mule-spun  worsted  yarns  are  of  comparatively  low 
count.  In  England,  yarns  spun  from  Australian  merino  wool  are 
commonly  known  as  Botany  yarns,  from  the  fact  that  the  first 
English  colony  in  Australia  was  known  as  Botany  Bay.  Frequently 
two  or  more  worsted  yarns  are  twisted  into  one  yarn,  which  is  called 
a  ply  yarn.  Ply  yarns  are  designated  according  to  the  number  of 
the  single  yarn,  prefixed  by  a  sub-number  indicating  the  ply.  For 
example,  two  60's  yarns  twisted  into  one  would  be  designated  as 
2/60's,  three  60's  yarn  twisted  into  one  as  3/60's,  and  so  on. 

Woolen  and  worsted  yarns  come  from  the  spinning  machines 
wound  on  cops,  tubes  or  spindles.  In  this  form  they  are  ready  for 
the  weaver.  To  a  certain  extent  spinning  and  weaving  are  separate 
divisions  of  the  wool  goods  industry,  but  the  division  is  not  exact. 
Some  mills  do  spinning  only;  some  do  weaving  only,  getting  their 
yarns  on  contract  from  spinners  or  in  the  open  market;  some  do 
both  spinning  and  weaving;  while  many  mills  which  do  both  spinning 
and  weaving  may  sell  some  of  their  yarn  output  to  other  mills  or  may 
buy  extra  supplies  or  special  qualities  from  outside  spinners.  There  is 
consequently  an  open  market  for  yarns,  and  the  fluctuations  of  this 
market  furnish  a  fair  index  of  the  trend  of  demand  for  goods. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  WEAVING  PROCESSES 

IT  is  probable  that  weaving  is  the  oldest  of  all  textile  processes, 
and  that  it  began  with  the  first  attempts  of  primitive  man  to 

weave  twigs  into  mats  or  baskets.  In  handling  twigs  it  was  easy 
enough  to  interlace  them  with  the  fingers  and  without  the  aid  of  any 
other  device.  But  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  weave  soft  fibers, 
like  wool,  it  became  necessary  to  stretch  a  certain  number  of  them 
between  fixed  objects,  so  as  to  form  a  groundwork  through  which 
other  threads  could  be  interwoven.  Thus  was  born  the  first  loom 
and,  crude  as  it  was,  it  embodied  the  basic  principle  upon  which  all 
subsequent  looms  have  been  built.  Essentially  weaving  is  based  on 
the  principle  of  a  fixed  groundwork  of  threads,  known  as  the  warp, 
through  which  by  various  devices  are  interwoven  other  threads,  known 
as  the  weft  or  filling. 

At  first  the  filling  threads  were  interlaced  alternately  with  the 
warp  threads  by  hand,  much  like  the  method  used  in  darning  stock- 
ings. This  was  a  painfully  slow  process.  Eventually,  however,  some- 
body hit  upon  the  idea  of  attaching  alternate  warp  threads  to  a 
movable  piece  of  wood,  by  which  the  set  of  warp  threads  attached  to 
it  could  be  raised  and  lowered,  while  the  remaining  warp  threads 
remained  stationary.  This  device,  which  is  known  as  a  heddle,  made 
it  possible  to  pass  the  filling  thread  much  more  rapidly  through  the 
warp  threads.  In  addition,  the  invention  of  the  heddle  made  it  pos- 
sible to  attach  the  filling  thread  to  some  heavy  object  and  throw  it 
through  the  warp,  instead  of  pulling  it  through  by  hand.  After  each 
filling  thread  had  been  shot  through  the  warp  it  was  pushed  into 
place  beside  the  preceding  one  by  means  of  a  stick. 

In  the  course  of  time  various  improvements  were  made  in  this 
original  loom.  The  heddles  were  developed  so  that  they  could  be 
worked  by  foot  treadles.  The  filling  threads  were  wound  on  bobbins 
and  placed  inside  hollow  shuttles  which  were  thrown  through  the  warp, 
unwinding  the  thread  as  they  moved.  The  warp  threads  were  wound 

[63] 


64  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

on  a  beam  placed  at  one  end  of  the  loom,  while  another  beam  at  the 
opposite  end  of  the  loom  took  up  the  finished  cloth  as  it  was  woven. 
This  made  it  possible  to  weave  various  lengths  of  cloth  on  the  one 
loom.  The  stick  for  beating  up  the  filling  threads  into  place  was 
developed  into  a  comb-like  affair,  called  a  reed,  which  did  the  work 
more  surely  and  evenly.  All  the  movements  of  this  loom  were 
controlled  by  hand,  except  the  raising  and  lowering  of  the  heddles, 
which  were  controlled  by  folot  treadles. 

An  important  innovation,  which  seems  to  have  been  developed  in 
the  East  during  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  and  which 
was  brought  to  Europe  from  Damascus  by  the  Crusaders,  was  what 
is  known  as  the  draw  loom.  This  was  a  device  for  facilitating  the 
repetition  of  a  pattern.  The  number  of  threads  in  the  warp  was 
divided  into  as  many  sections  as  there  were  repetitions  of  the 
pattern.  The  similarly  numbered  threads  from  each  section  were 
combined  and  fastened  to  a  cord.  When  this  cord  was  drawn  it 
lifted  all  the  corresponding  threads  of  every  section. 

No  further  important  improvements  were  made  in  the  loom 
until  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  its  mechanism  was 
revolutionized  by  a  number  of  inventions.  The  first  of  these  was  the 
flying  shuttle,  a  device  for  driving  the  shuttle  through  the  warp 
mechanically  instead  of  by  hand,  which  was  invented  in  1738  by 
John  Kay,  a  native  of  Bolton,  Lancashire.  His  son,  Robert,  invented 
in  1760  a  device  known  as  a  drop  box,  to  hold  several  shuttles 
with  thre'ads  of  different  colors,  which  made  possible  quicker 
changes  in  weaving  cloths  of  more  than  one  color.  In  the  latter 
year  a  new  kind  of  loom,  known  as  the  swivel  loom,  was  introduced 
into  England  from  Holland.  This  made  possible  the  weaving  of 
several  narrow  pieces  of  cloth  at  the  same  time.  Soon  afterward 
came  the  harness-loom  containing  several  sets  of  heddles,  each  set 
attached  to  a  frame  called  the  harness,  by  which  they  could  be  raised 
and  lowered. 

In  the  harness  loom  the  heddles  consist  of  cords  or  wires  suspended 
in  a  frame.  Each  heddle  is  fitted  with  an  eyelet  or  loop,  and  through 
each  of  these  eyelets  or  loops  a  warp  thread  is  passed.  For  a  plain 


The  Weaving  Processes  65 

weave  only  two  harness  frames  are  used,  the  warp  threads  being 
passed  alternately  through  the  heddle  eyelets  of  each  .frame.  For 
twill  and  satin  weaves  three,  four  or  five  harness  frames  may  be  used, 
so  that  one  speaks  of  three-  or  four-harness  twills,  or  five-harness 
satins,  etc.  For  fancy  weaves  a  large  number  of  harness  frames  may 
be  used.  The  harness  loom  is  used  for  weaving  all  kinds  of  plain  and 
fancy  fabrics,  except  those  embodying  very  intricate  and  elaborate 
patterns,  which  are  woven  usually  on  a  Jacquard  loom. 

The  latter  machine  was  invented  by  Joseph  Marie  Jacquard,  of 
Lyons,  France,  and  was  first  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of 
1801.  Essentially  it  is  a  development  of  the  draw  loom,  already 
mentioned.  Every  thread  in  the  warp  is  drawn  through  an  independent 
heddle  eyelet.  A  number  of  heddles  containing  one  thread  from  each 
repeat  in  the  pattern  are  gathered  together  into  what  is  known  as 
a  lash.  Each  lash  is  fastened  to  a  hook  by  which  it  is  raised  or  lowered. 
The  raising  or  lowering  of  the  hooks  is  controlled  by  means  of  holes 
punched  in  cards,  after  the  manner  of  a  player  piano.  • 

It  was  well  into  the  nineteenth  century  before  either  water-power 
or  steam-power  was  applied  to  weaving  on  any  considerable  scale. 
Actually,  the  power  loom  was  invented  by  Edmund  Cartwright,  an 
English  preacher,  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century;  but 
partly  because  of  imperfections  in  the  mechanism  and  partly  because 
of  opposition  from  the  textile  industry  it  made  its  way  very  slowly. 
The  idea  of  dressing  the  warp  with  a  sizing  before  placing  it  in  the 
loom  and  the  invention  of  a  mechanism  for  taking  up  the  slack  of 
the  cloth  in  weaving — both  introduced  by  William  Radcliffe  in  1803 — 
made  the  power  loom  more  practical,  and  by  the  year  1815  it  was 
being  used  generally  in  the  cotton  industry,  although  it  was  not 
adopted  to  any  considerable  extent  in  the  woolen  and  worsted  in- 
dustry until  about  twenty  years  later.  Since  then  the  loom  has  been 
improved  by  the  addition  of  various  devices  until  it  has  become  an 
almost  completely  automatic  machine  of  high  efficiency.  The  modern 
loom  stops  automatically  when  a  thread  breaks  or  the  filling  in  the 
shuttles  is  exhausted,  so  that  it  requires  practically  no  attention  and 
involves  the  use  of  very  little  labor. 


66  Wool,  the  Worlds  Comforter 

But  while  little  labor  is  involved  in  the  weaving  of  cloth,  a  good 
deal  is  involved  in  preparing  the  yarns  for  the  loom.  The  manner 
in  which  yarns  are  prepared  for  the  loom  depends  upon  whether  they 
are  to  be  used  as  warp  or  filling.  Warp  yarns  are  wound  on  spools 
by  means  of  a  machine  called  a  spooler.  As  many  of  these  spools 
as  there  are  to  be  warp  threads  in  the  proposed  fabric  are  placed  in 
a  large  frame,  called  a  creel,  where  the  yarn  is  unwound  from  them 
and  wound  regularly  and  evenly  on  a  'beam,  known  as  the  warp  beam. 
This  process  is  known  as  warping.  Before  the  warp  yarns  are  placed 
in  the  loom  they  are  usually  immersed  in  a  sizing  solution  in  order 
to  give  them  more  strength,  stiffness  and  smoothness.  In  passing 
through  this  solution  they  are  unwound  from  the  warp  beam  and  re- 
wound on  another  beam,  known  as  the  weaver's  or  loom  beam.  This 
beam  is  taken  to  the  drawing-in  room,  where  the  threads  are  drawn 
through  the  heddles  in  the  harness  frames  and  through  the  wire  teeth 
of  the  reed.  The  beam  and  harness  are  then  placed  in  position  in 
the  loom,  and  the  ends  of  the  warp  are  attached  to  a  roller  at  the 
front  of  the  loom,  which  takes  up  the  cloth  according  as  it  is  woven. 
In  the  meantime,  the  filling  yarns  have  been  wound  on  bobbins 
which  are  placed  in  the  shuttles  on  the  loom.  The  loom  is  now  read} 
to  start  weaving. 

The  variety  of  operations  performed  <by  a  loom  in  weaving  a  piece 
of  cloth  depends  upon  the  nature  of  the  weave.  In  the  case  of  a 
fancy  weave,  these  operations  are  often  bewilderingly  intricate,  as 
a  large  number  of  harnesses  may  be  used,  all  of  which  move  up  and 
down  in  varied  groupings  and  at  varied  intervals,  according  to  a  pre- 
conceived pattern.  Reduced  to  its  simplest  terms,  however,  the  process 
of  weaving  may  be  described  briefly  as  follows:  The  shuttles  fly  back 
and  forth,  weaving  the  weft  threads  over  and  under  the  warp  threads 
as  the  latter  are  raised  and  lowered  by  the  harnesses.  After  each 
passage  of  the  shuttle  the  reed  is  carried  forward,  pushing  the  weft 
thread  into  place — thus  tightening  up  the  weave,  so  to  speak.  Ac- 
cording as  the  cloth  is  woven  it  is  drawn  off  and  rolled  by  the  taking- 
up  roller. 

It  can  easily  be  understood  that  the  nature  of  the  weave  may  be 


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The  Weaving  Processes  69 

varied  greatly  according  to  the  number  of  harnesses  used  and  accord- 
ing to  the  groupings  in  which  the  harnesses  are  raised  and  lowered. 
While  the  possible  variations  in  weave  are  practically  unlimited,  they 
may  all  b.e  classified  under  six  main  headings:  Plain  weaves,  twill 
weaves,  satin  weaves,  figured  or  fancy  weaves,  pile  weaves  and  double 
cloth  weaves.  Any  one  of  these  classifications  may  include  many  dif- 
ferent qualities  of  cloth,  and  any  one  of  them  may  be  varied  so  as  to 
produce  a  large  number  of  different  effects. 

The  most  important  and  the  most  common  of  all  textile  weaves 
Is  the  plain  weave,  commonly  referred  to  as  a  one-and-one  weave, 
because  the  weft  or  filling  thread  is  passed  at  right  angles  over  and 
under  alternate  warp  threads.  This  produces  a  smooth,  plain  cloth 
of  fairly  open  texture.  The  closeness  of  the  texture  and  the  smooth- 
ness of  the  surface  depend  to  a  large  extent  upon  the  size  of  the 
yarns  used,  as  well  as  on  the  nature  of  the  finish.  Woolen  cloths,  as 
a  rule,  are  fulled  or  felted  in  the  finish,  so  that  the  texture  is  not 
so  readily  discernible.  A  variety  of  patterns  can  be  produced  with 
the  plain  weave  by  using  yarns  of  different  sizes  or  dyed  yarns  of 
different  colors.  For  instance,  corded  effects  in  stripes  and  checks 
may  be  produced  by  varying  the  size  of  the  yarns  in  the  warp  or 
weft,  or  both.  Colored  stripes  are  produced  by  using  bands  of  dyed 
yarns  in  the  warp,  and  checks  and  plaids  are  produced  by  using  dyed 
yarn  in  the  warp  and  filling.  Obviously,  it  is  possible  by  using  dyed 
yarns  to  obtain  an  almost  unlimited  number  of  different  colors.  The 
plain  weave  is  used  to  a  considerable  extent  in  the  making  of  staple 
woolens,  such  as  broadcloths,  homespuns,  meltons  and  kerseys. 

The  most  important  worsted  weave  is  the  twill  weave,  of  which 
serge  is  the  outstanding  example.  It  may  be  distinguished  by  the  fact 
that  it  produces  fine  lines  or  ribs  running  diagonally  across  the  cloth. 
In  weaving  a  twill  the  filling  threads  do  not  pass  at  right  angles  over 
and  under  the  warp  threads  at  regular  intervals,  as  in  the  plain  weave, 
but  at  irregular  intervals  of  two,  three,  four,  five  or  more  threads. 
For  instance,  the  filling  threads  might  pass  over  one  warp  thread  and 
under  three,  four,  five  or  six,  or  they  might  pass  over  two  and  under 
one,  two,  three  or  four.  Every  time  the  filling  shuttle  goes  through 


70  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

it  passes  over  and  under  a  different  set  of  warp  threads.  This  is 
what  gives  the  diagonal  rib  effect.  The  combinations  of  this  weave 
can  be  varied  almost  indefinitely,  so  as  to  produce  not  only  diagonal 
rib  effects  but  curved,  waved  and  zig-zag  ribs,  such  as  herringbones. 
Additional  effects  can  be  introduced,  as  in  the  plain  weave,  by  using 
yarns  of  different  sizes  or  dyed  yarns  of  different  colors. 

The  satin  weave  is  really  a  variation  of  the  twill  weave,  except 
that  it  is  done  in  such  a  way  as  to  conceal  the  twill  structure  and 
produce  a  very  smooth  surface.  This  effect  is  obtained  by  passing 
the  filling  threads  over  or  under  a  large  number  of  warp  threads — 
anywhere  from  six  to  twelve.  If,  for  example,  the  filling  threads  are 
passed  under  one  warp  thread  and  over  eight  or  ten  warp  threads, 
the  result  is  that  most  of  the  filling  is  on  the  face  of  the  cloth.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  filling  threads  are  passed  over  one  warp 
thread  and  under  eight  or  ten  warp  threads,  the  result  is  that  most 
of  the  warp  is  on  the  face  of  the  cloth.  The  satin  weave  is  used 
to  a  very  limited  extent  in  the  manufacture  of  wool  goods,  except 
for  fabrics  like  cotton-warp  serges,  in  which  only  the  worsted 
filling  is  meant  to  show  on  the  face  of  the  cloth. 

Figured  or  fancy  weaves  are  the  most  intricate  of  all,  and  are 
susceptible  of  endless  variations.  As  the  name  indicates,  they  are 
used  to  achieve  figured  patterns  on  the  cloth.  The  most  elaborate 
and  complicated  patterns  are  woven  usually  on  a  Jacquard  loom,  and 
are  often  referred  to  as  Jacquard  weaves.  Brocades  are  woven  in 
this  way.  Less  intricate  patterns  are  woven  on  dobby  looms,  while 
the  more  simple  patterns,  such  as  stripes  and  herringbones,  are  woven 
on  plain  looms  in  plain  or  twill  weaves.  The  difference  between  a 
dobby  loom  and  a  plain  loom  is  that  the  former  has  a  larger  number 
of  harnesses,  which  are  operated  in  a  somewhat  different  way.  Also 
the  dobby  loom  may  be  equipped  with  several  shuttles,  each  holding 
yarn  of  a  different  color,  the  proper  shuttle  being  selected  automat- 
ically according  to  the  pattern  by  means  of  a  device  known  as  the 
box  motion. 

The  pile  weave  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  separate  weave,  but 
is  a  variation  of  the  plain  weave.  There  are  several  ways  of  weaving 


The  Weaving  Processes 


a  pile  fabric,  the  most  common  being  what  is  known  as  the  terry 
motion  (from  the  French  tirer,  meaning  to  draw  or  pull).  In  weaving 
pile  fabrics  by  the  terry  motion  an  extra  set  of  warp  threads  is 
introduced.  These  are  left  slack  in  the  loom,  so  that  the  reed  in  beat- 
ing up  the  filling  threads  draws  the  slack  warp  threads  into  loops. 
Subsequently  the  loops  are  cut  open  at  the  top,  or  else  are  left  uncut. 
The  same  result  is  sometimes  obtained  by  carrying  the  extra  warp 
threads  across  wires  laid  parallel  to  the  filling  threads.  Still  another 
method  of  weaving  a  pile  fabric  is  by  using  extra  filling  threads  in 
the  shuttles.  These  are  not  carried  all  the  way  across  the  cloth,  like 
the  regular  filling  threads,  but  are  floated  to  the  surface  at  intervals, 
making  a  loose  pile. 

Finally,  pile  fabrics  may  be  produced  by  means  of  the  double- 
cloth  weave.  This  is  done  by  weaving  two  cloths  on  the  loom  at  the 
same  time  and  combining  them  into  one  by  interlacing  some  of  the 
warp  and  filling  threads  of  one  into  the  other  during  the  process  of 
weaving.  When  pile  fabrics  are  being  made  in  this  way  the  two 
cloths  are  cut  apart  by  a  sharp  knife  as  fast  as  they  are  woven, 
leaving  a  pile  on  one  side  of  each  cloth.  The  double-cloth  weave  is 
used  also  to  produce  a  double-faced  cloth,  or  a  cloth  with  different 
patterns  on  either  side,  or  a  heavy  cloth  with  a  cheaper  material  on 
the  back  than  on  the  face.  In  such  cases,  of  course,  the  cloths  are 
closely  interwoven,  and  are  not  cut  apart  subsequently.  Pile  weaves 
are  not  much  used  for  wool  goods,  the  pile  effect  being  obtained 
usually  by  a  finishing  process  known  as  napping.  The  double-cloth 
weave  is  used  for  beavers,  chinchillas  and  the  like. 


CHAPTER  IX 
DYEING  AND  FINISHING 

WHILE  variations  in  weave  constitute  the  chief  method  of 
varying  the  appearance  of  cloth,  there  is  a  wide  range  of 
different  effects  which  may  be  produced  by  variations  in 
color  and  finish.  Color  is  applied  to  wool  goods  chiefly  by  dyeing. 
Printing  is  used  to  a  very  limited  extent.  Both  dyeing  and  printing 
mean,  in  principle,  the  application  of  a  coloring  substance  which 
will  combine  with  the  textile  in  such  a  manner  as  to  produce  a 
certain  shade  and  remain  fast  under  certain  conditions. 

Wool  differs  greatly  from  cotton  in  its  affinity  to  dyestuffs.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  it  takes  dyestuffs  more  readily  than  cotton.  Again, 
some  dyes  that  will  give  a  good,  strong  color  to  wool  will  give  only 
the  faintest  tint  to  cotton  and  vice  versa.  The  kind  of  dye  used  for 
any  given  fabric  depends  upon  the  effect  desired,  the  conditions 
under  which  the  fabric  is  to  be  used  and,  finally,  the  ideas  of  the 
dyer  as  to  what  is  the  best  dye  for  these  purposes.  The  variety  of 
dyestuffs  used  in  the  wool  goods  industry,  therefore,  is  practically 
unlimited.  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  a  large  proportion  of  them 
come  under  the  general  classification  of  acid  dyes. 

Mordant  and  vat  dyes  also  are  used  to  a  considerable  extent.  A 
mordant  is  a  substance  which  has  an  affinity  for  both  the  coloring 
matter  and  the  textile  material,  and  consequently  serves  to  unite 
them  closely.  Tin  and  chromium  are  the  mordants  used  chiefly  in 
dyeing  wool  goods.  Mordant  dyes,  as  a  rule,  are  very  fast.  Vat 
dyes  are  so  called  because  they  are  insoluble  in  water  and  must  be 
specially  prepared  in  large  vats,  where  they  are  made  soluble  by 
the  addition  of  some  chemical  such  as  hyposulphite.  After  the 
material  has  been  dyed  the  colors  must  be  made  insoluble  again — 
or,  in  other  words,  fixed — by  the  addition  of  other  chemicals.  These 
dyes,  too,  are  very  fast  as  a  rule. 

Wool  goods  may  be  dyed  either  in  the  raw  stock,  in  the  top,  in 
the  slubbing,  in  the  yarn  or  in  the  piece.  The  principal  reason  for 
dyeing  wool  before  it  is  spun  into  yarn  is  that  the  coloring  matter 

[72] 


Dyeing  and  Finishing 


penetrates  all  the  fibers  more  thoroughly  and  is  more  likely  to 
remain  fast  under  very  trying  conditions.  For  woolen  mixtures,  the 
raw  wool  is  dyed  immediately  after  scouring,  so  that  mixed  color 
effects  can  be  obtained  in  the  yarn.  For  worsteds  the  dyeing  is 
done  for  the  most  part  either  in  the  top  or  the  slubbing  rather  than 
in  the  raw  stock.  The  chief  reason  for  dyeing  yarns  is  to  permit  the 
achievement  of  woven  color  effects.  Cotton  warp  goods  also  are 
dyed  usually  in  the  yarn,  because  the  cotton  and  wool  take  the  color 
differently. 

For  all  solid  colored  goods  piece  dyeing  is  the  cheapest  and  most 
convenient  method.  Piece-dyed  goods  are  woven  with  yarns  in  their 
natural  colors  and  then  are  passed  over  rollers  through  vats  con- 
taining the  dye  liquor.  Cross  dyeing  and  speck  dyeing  are  varia- 
tions of  the  piece-dyeing  method.  The  former  is  used  for  cotton 
warp  goods  which  have  been  woven  with  undyed  wool  yarns.  Such 
goods  are  woven  usually  with  colored  cotton  yarns  and  white  wool 
yarns.  They  are  then  piece  dyed  in  a  stuff  that  will  color  the  wool 
without  affecting  the  cotton.  Speck  dyeing  is  done  to  goods  which 
contain  burrs.  If  wool  contains  a  large  amount  of  burrs  they  are 
removed,  before  the  wool  is  carded  or  combed,  by  a  chemical  process 
known  as  carbonizing,  described  in  a  previous  chapter.  Otherwise 
they  are  picked  out.  But  sometimes,  when  the  wool  is  not  carbo- 
nized, a  number  of  burrs  remain  which  are  too  deeply  imbedded  in 
the  fiber  to  be  picked  out  without  injury  to  the  fiber.  These,  being 
vegetable  matter,  take  the  dye  differently  than  wool  and  cause 
specks  in  the  cloth.  When  this  happens  the  cloth,  after  the  regular 
dyeing,  is  treated  to  another  dye  that  will  color  the  burrs  without 
affecting  the  wool. 

All  dyeing  is  done  by  soaking  the  material  to  be  dyed  in  the 
coloring  liquid.  Subsequently  the  material  is  rinsed  and  dried. 
Printing  is  used  instead  of  dyeing  as  a  more  convenient  method  of 
applying  designs  in  color.  Colored  designs  on  cloth,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  can  be  obtained  by  weaving  yarns  of  different  colors 
and,  thanks  to  the  Jacquard  loom,  very  intricate  designs  may  be 
achieved  in  this  way.  But  the  printing  method  is  mucli  more  simple. 


74  J^ool9  the  World's  Comforter 

By  this  method  a  series  of  rollers  are  engraved  with  the  proposed 
design.  There  is  a  separate  roller  for  each  color,  engraved  only  with 
the  part  of  the  design  which  carries  that  particular  color.  The  col- 
oring matter  applied  to  each  roller  is  scraped  off  with  a  close-fitting 
knife  as  fast  as  the  roller  revolves,  remaining  only  in  the  engraved 
parts.  The  cloth  is  passed  over  these  rollers  by  means  of  a  revolving 
cylinder,  receiving  the  color  impressions  as  it  passes.  Printing  is 
not  used  very  much  for  wool  goods.  In  making  certain  kinds  of 
worsteds,  however,  the  combed  sliver  is  sometimes  printed  before 
it  is  twisted  into  yarn.  This  is  known  as  vigoureux  printing. 

If  the  natural  color  of  the  wool  is  not  a  clean  white,  or  if  the 
wool  has  acquired  stains  in  the  preliminary  manufacturing  proc- 
esses, it  must  often  be  submitted  to  a  bleaching  process.  This  is 
especially  true  if  the  goods  are  to  be  finished  white  or  dyed  in  light 
colors.  Wool  usually  is  bleached  with  sulphurous  acid.  The  gen- 
eral method  is  to  pass  it  in  a  damp  state  through  a  closed  chamber 
filled  with  the  fumes  from  burning-  sulphur.  Sulphurous  acid  appar- 
ently does  not  destroy  the  coloring  matter  in  the  textile,  but  simply 
changes  it  to  white,  so  that  a  cloth  bleached  in  this  way  may  even- 
tually revert  to  its  original  color.  Consequently  it  is  not  an  ideal 
bleach  for  white  goods.  Oxygen,  on  the  other  hand,  destroys  the 
coloring  matter  entirely,  and  for  this  reason  some  oxygen  agent, 
such  as  hydrogen  peroxide,  sodium  peroxide  or  potassium  permanga- 
nate, often  is  used  instead  of  sulphurous  acid. 

In  addition  to  bleaching  and  dyeing,  wool  goods  must  be  put 
through  a  number  of  other  finishing  processes.  The  nature  of  these 
processes,  of  course,  depends  to  a  large  extent  on  the  nature  of  the 
finish  desired.  Generally  all  wool  goods  are  divided,  according  to 
finish,  into  clear-finished  goods  and  face-finished  goods.  Clear- 
finished  goods  are  those  which  receive  little  or  no  fulling,  and  which 
therefore  show  the  texture  clearly.  Most  worsteds  come  in  this 
class.  Face-finished  goods  are  those  which  are  fulled  so  that  the 
texture  of  the  cloth  is  not  apparent.  Broadcloth  is  a  typical  example 
of  the  latter.  But  whether  the  cloth  is  to  be  fulled  or  not,  it  goes 
first  through  the  processes  of  perching,  burling  and  mending. 


DRAWING  WARP  THREADS  THROUGH  THE  HEDDLES  IN 
THE  HARNESSES,  WHICH  CONTROL  THE  APPEARANCE 
OF  THE  WEAVE,  AS  THEY  MOVE  UP  AND  DOWN  AC- 
CORDING TO  THE  PATTERN 


Dyeing  and  Finishing 


Perching  is  really  a  method  of  inspection.  The  perch  consists  of 
two  horizontal  rollers  about  four  feet  apart,  suspended  from  the 
ceiling  near  a  window.  The  cloth  is  stretched  over  these  rollers  and 
the  inspector  stands  between  them,  so  that  he  can  pull  down  the 
cloth  bit  by  bit  and  examine  it  against  the  light  for  defects.  These 
defects  are  marked  with  chalk,  and  the  cloth  then  goes  to  the  burlers, 
who  spread  it  out  on  stands  and  remove  knots,  bunches  and  loose 
threads  by  means  of  burling  irons  and  scissors.  Any  defects  which 
may  have  escaped  the  inspector  are  likely  to  be  discovered  by  the 
burlers  and  these,  too,  are  marked  with  chalk  for  the  menders.  Fine 
cloth  usually  is  submitted  to  an  additional  inspection  after  the 
burlers  get  through  with  it.  Then  it  goes  to  the  menders,  who  repair 
any  remediable  defects  by  darning.  In  case  the  goods  are  not  to  be 
fulled  they  are  then  singed,  in  order  to  remove  any  fuzz  which  may 
appear  on  the  surface.  Subsequently  the  goods  are  scoured,  in  order 
to  remove  the  oil  with  which  the  wool  was  treated  before  spinning, 
the  sizing  applied  to  the  warp  before  weaving,  and  any  other  foreign 
matter  which  the  fabric  may  have  acquired  during  the  process  of 
manufacture.  Sometimes,  however,  this  scouring  is  omitted,  as  a 
certain  amount  of  scouring  is  included  in  the  fulling  process. 

Fulling  is  a  process  peculiar  to  the  wool  industry,  and  it  owes 
its  origin  to  the  characteristic  felting  or  matting  quality  of  the  wool 
fiber.  The  wool  fiber  is  covered  with  minute  scales,  so  that  when  a 
number  of  fibers  are  pressed  together  they  tend  to  interlock.  This 
interlocking  is  intensified  by  the  application  of  moisture  and  heat, 
which  causes  the  fibers  to  shrink.  Fulling  is  merely  a  process  by 
which  the  fibers  in  a  piece  of  cloth  are  made  to  mat  or  felt  by  the 
application  of  moisture,  pressure  and  heat.  Obviously,  it  gives 
the  fabric  greater  strength  and  body,  and  this  is  primarily  the 
purpose  for  which  it  is  used.  It  is  used,  too,  to  give  the  fabric  a 
certain  characteristic  feel  and  appearance.  Also,  unfortunately,  it 
may  be  used  to  give  good  body,  feel  and  appearance  to  inferior 
fabrics  and  to  cover  up  defects  in  the  texture. 

The  fulling  process  consists  of  saturating  the  cloth  with  hot 
water  and  soap  and  passing  it  between  slowly  revolving  rollers. 


78  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

Heat  is  generated  by  the  friction  of  the  rollers.  The  cloth  may 
remain  in  the  fulling  mill  anywhere  from  two  to  eighteen  hours, 
depending  upon  the  amount  of  fulling  required.  Worsteds  receive 
comparatively  little  fulling,  whereas  broadcloths,  or  cloths  which 
are  to  get  a  napped  finish,  are  very  closely  fulled.  Cloth  will  shrink 
in  this  process  anywhere  from  10  to  25  per  cent,  according  to  the 
amount  of  fulling  it  receives. 

In  order  to  make  up  for  this  shrinkage,  and  also  in  order  to  lend 
body  to  inferior  goods,  flocks  are  sometimes  fulled  into  the  goods. 
Flocks  are  small  bits  of  wool  fiber  obtained  either  by  shearing  the 
nap  off  goods  in  the  finishing  room  or  else  by  cutting  up  or  grinding 
up  rags.  When  they  are  employed  to  obtain  a  closer  felt  in  goods 
of  sound  quality  their  use  is  not  open  to  criticism;  but  when  they 
are  used  to  give  body  and  the  appearance  of  superior  wearing  qual- 
ity to  inferior  fabrics,  they  are,  of  course,  misleading,  since  they  do 
not  add  to  the  wearing  quality  of  cloth.  Their  presence  in  a  piece 
of  cloth  may  be  detected  by  brushing  the  back  of  it  vigorously  with 
a  stiff  brush.  Some  of  them  will  come  out  in  the  brushing. 

After  the  fulling  has  been  completed  the  goods  are  washed, 
stretched  and  dried.  Subsequently  some  goods,  chiefly  dress  goods, 
are  put  through  a  process  known  as  crabbing,  the  purpose  of  which 
is  to  set  the  goods.  In  the  crabbing  process  the  cloth  is  wound  tight 
on  a  cylinder  which  revolves  in  hot  water.  Then  it  is  taken  out  for 
one  or  two  hours,  after  which  it  is  returned  to  the  machine  for 
about  twenty-five  minutes,  during  which  it  is  boiled  and  pressed. 
Next  comes  the  process  of  gigging  or  napping.  The  cloth  in  a  tightly 
stretched  condition  is  passed  over  revolving  cylinders  equipped 
with  teasels  or  wire  teeth  which  scratch  up  the  short  fibers  to  the 
surface  and  produce  a  nap.  The  teasels  used  in  the  gigging  machine 
are  the  dried  flower  heads  of  a  plant  of  that  name,  and  are  about  the 
shape  of  pine  cones.  Strictly  speaking,  the  term  gigging  is  applied 
only  to  the  process  of  raising  a  nap  with  the  teasel  gig,  while  the 
term  napping  refers  to  the  process  of  raising  a  nap  with  the  wire- 
toothed  napping  machine.  The  teasel  gig  is  generally  considered 
superior  to  the  napping  machine  for  this  purpose. 


Dyeing  and  Finishing 


The  amount  of  napping  given  to  the  cloth  depends  upon  the  kind 
of  finish  required.  Some  get  a  superficial  napping  and  some  a  deep 
napping.  Where  a  very  soft  nap  is  required,  the  cloth  may  be  put 
through  the  gig  or  napping  machine  several  times,  part  of  the  nap 
being  cropped  or  sheared  after  each  napping.  After  the  napping  is 
completed  the  nap  is  brushed  up  and  sheared  to  make  it  even.  If  a 
smooth,  lustrous  finish  is  desired,  the  cloth  is  pressed  between  heated 
calender  rollers,  and  subsequently  steam  is  forced  through  it  at 
high  pressure.  This  process  is  applied  chiefly  to  men's  wear  goods. 
Women's  wear  goods  usually  get  a  water  finish.  This  consists  of 
brushing  the  face  of  the  goods  with  water  by  means  of  a  machine 
known  as  a  wet  gig,  after  which  they  are  stretched  and  pressed. 
There  are  various  other  kinds  of  special  finishes  used  for  different 
kinds  of  goods.  They  are  too  numerous  to  be  described  here.  But 
in  general,  the  processes  already  described  are  those  applied  to  the 
great  majority  of  woolen  and  worsted  fabrics. 

Before  the  cloth  is  ready  for  shipment  it  is  subjected  to  a  final 
inspection  for  defects.  All  remediable  defects  are  then  remedied, 
and  the  cloth  is  marked  firsts  or  seconds,  according  to  the  number 
of  defects  it  contains.  There  is  no  hard  and  fast  rule  as  to  what 
constitutes  firsts  and  seconds.  Every  manufacturer  has  his  own 
standard.  But  on  the  average  six  defects  are  allowed  in  a  piece  of 
goods  classifiable  as  firsts,  while  a  piece  containing  more  than  six 
defects  is  classified  as  seconds.  Subsequent  to  this  final  inspection 
the  goods  are  measured,  rolled  and  packed  for  shipment. 


CHAPTER  X 
MANUFACTURE  AND  USE  OF  SHODDY 

SHODDY  is  a  term  so  widely  used  and  misused  that  the  average 
person,  even  the  average  wool  goods  buyer,  has  a  very  loose 
notion  of  what  it  really  is.     But  for  a  long  time  the  question 
of  shoddy  versus  virgin  wool  has   been  the  subject  of   so   much 
discussion  and  agitation  in  the  public  prints  and  the  halls  of  Con- 
gress that  a  clear  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  the  term  has 
become  important.    Especially  is  it  important  for  the  buyer  and  user 
of  wool  goods  to  know  in  what  way  the  use  of  shoddy  impairs  the 
wearing  quality  of  a  fabric. 

Originally,  shoddy  means  anything  that  is  shod  or  shed,  and, 
strictly  speaking,  it  covers  all  wool  fibers  that  are  shed  in  the 
process  of  manufacture.  Thus  it  would  properly  include  noils  and 
the  various  forms  of  waste  broken  off  by  or  entangled  in  the  comb- 
ing, drawing  and  spinning  machinery.  In  modern  trade  usage, 
however,  the  term  shoddy  is  used  to  describe  reworked  wool;  that  is 
to  say,  wool  which  previously  has  been  manufactured  into  yarns  or 
fabrics.  Virgin  wool,  on  the  other  hand,  is  wool  which  never  has  *' 
been  submitted  to  any  manufacturing  process. 

Obviously,  there  are  many  different  grades  of  shoddy,  according 
to  the  variety  and  quality  of  the  stock  from  which  it  has  been 
reworked.  Contrary  to  a  widespread  impression,  fostered  by  the 
propaganda  of  those  who,  for  one  reason  or  another,  are  opposed  to 
the  use  of  shoddy,  it  is  not  a  product  obtained  by  grinding  up  an 
indiscriminate  mass  of  rags.  The  raw  material  of  shoddy  consists 
of  waste  yarns,  clippings  of  new  wool  fabrics  gathered  in  mills  and 
clothing  factories  and  old  wool  rags.  Shoddy  obtained  from  very 
hard  woven  woolens  and  worsteds  is  inferior  to  that  obtained  from 
soft  woven  or  knit  goods — everything  else  being  equal — and  it  is 
often  referred  to  as  mungo.  Shoddy  obtained  by  untwisting  waste 
yarns  or  yarns  from  knit  goods  is  often  referred  to  as  garnetted 
stock. 

[80] 


Manufacture  and  Use  of  Shoddy  81 

All  the  materials  from  which  shoddy  is  made  are  sorted  accord- 
ing to  the  quality  of  the  fiber  that  may  be  obtained  from  them. 
Roughly  speaking,  four  conditions  are  observed  in  the  sorting:  The 
purity  of  the  material,  the  length  of  the  fiber,  the  structure  of  the 
weave  and  the  color.  The  purity  of  the  material  refers  to  whether 
it  is  all  pure,  virgin  wool  or  contains  a  percentage  of  reworked  wool, 
cotton  or  silk.  The  length  of  fiber  is  an  important  consideration 
because  it  helps  to  determine  the  quality  of  wool  in  the  material. 
The  structure  of  the  weave  is  important  because  a  loosely  spun  and 
loosely  woven  material  is  easier  to  rework  without  injury  to  the 
fiber  than  a  hard-woven  or  felted  material.  Finally,  the  colors 
have  to  be  considered  because  some  of  them  are  fast  and  some  will  fade 
in  the  process  of  reworking;  some  of  the  materials  can  be  redyed  and 
some  cannot. 

Generally  speaking,  the  best  materials  for  reworking  are  knit 
goods,  all  wool  merinos,  worsteds,  serges  and  flannels — in  about  the 
order  named.  Most  of  these  are  made  exclusively  from  virgin  wool 
of  good  quality,  and  none  of  them  will  contain  more  than  a  small 
percentage  of  shoddy.  Next  in  value  come  woolen  cloths,  jerseys, 
cloakings  and  felted  woolens.  These  will  contain  a  considerable 
percentage  of  reworked  wool,  and  some  of  them  a  large  percentage. 
In  the  lowest  category  are  included  unions,  delaines  and  carpets. 
These  classifications,  of  course,  are  modified  according  to  whether 
the  materials  are  new  or  old  and  according  to  the  kind  of  fiber  used 
in  them. 

Shoddy  materials  are  sorted  according  to  grade  by  dealers  who 
make  a  specialty  of  this  work,  and  are  sold  in  graded  lots  to  con- 
verters. The  converter  is  the  man  who  turns  them  into  fiber  suit- 
able for  spinning  and  weaving.  The  different  processes  used  in  the 
conversion  of  these  materials  are  known  as  carbonizing;  baking  and 
dusting;  washing,  stripping  and  dyeing;  conditioning;  picking  and 
shredding.  These  processes  vary  somewhat  in  different  plants;  but 
in  general,  the  progress  of  the  materials  through  the  converting 
plant  may  be  described  as  follows : 

After  being  cleaned,  wherever  necessary  to  remove  dirt  or  grease, 


82  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

the  materials  are  subjected  to  a  chemical  bath  in  order  to  disin- 
tegrate the  cotton  or  silk  which  may  be  mixed  with  the  wool.  In  the 
case  of  cotton  fiber,  which  is  most  often  present,  the  carbon  in  the 
cotton  is  released  by  the  application  of  an  acid,  and  the  process 
consequently  is  known  as  carbonizing.  The  chemicals  generally 
used  are  sulphuric  acid,  hydrochloric  acid,  or  bisulphate  of  soda. 
In  the  case  of  a  silk  mixture,  a  caustic  alkali  is  used.  The  percentage 
of  silk-mixed  wool  fabrics,  however,  is  very  small. 

After  carbonizing,  the  acid  which  the  materials  have  absorbed 
is  removed  by  means  of  a  centrifugal  machine  known  as  a  whizzer. 
The  materials  are  then  baked  at  a  very  high  temperature,  which 
reduces  the  carbonized  cotton  to  a  condition  of  dust,  and  this  dust 
is  taken  out  by  a  machine  known  as  a  duster,  or  willow.  Subse- 
quently, the  materials  are  washed  in  a  mild  solution  of  soda  ash  in 
order  to  neutralize  whatever  acid  may  remain  in  them.  This  wash- 
ing has  the  further  effect  of  removing  any  dirt  or  dust  that  may  be 
left  after  willowing.  The  materials  then  are  wrung  out  and  dried 
at  a  moderate  temperature. 

By  this  time  the  fugitive  colors  have  been  faded  by  the  acid  bath 
and  the  baking.  So  it  is  necessary  to  sort  out  the  faded  materials 
and  further  reduce  the  color  in  them  so  that  they  can  be  redyed  to 
uniform  shades.  This  reducing  process  is  known  as  stripping  and 
is  accomplished  by  the  application  of  a  chemical.  Soda  hydralite, 
bichromate  of  potash  and  sulphuric  or  oxalic  acid  are  most  generally 
used  for  this  purpose.  The  materials  then  are  dyed  in  the  usual 
manner.  White  and  fast-dyed  materials,  of  course,  do  not  need 
stripping  or  dyeing. 

The  next  process  in  the  conversion  of  shoddy  is  known  as  condi- 
tioning. It  consists  of  lubricating  the  fibers  so  as  to  make  them 
soft  and  supple,  and  consequently  in  better  condition  for  carding 
and  spinning.  The  materials  are  spread  out  in  thin  layers,  sprinkled 
liberally  with  oil  or  an  oil  emulsion,  and  left  to  soak  for  twenty-four 
to  forty-eight  hours.  The  materials  now  are  loose  and  pliable,  free 
from  foreign  matter,  and  ready  to  be  teazed  out  or  shredded.  This 
is  done  by  a  picking  machine  similar  to  that  used  on  raw  cotton  or 


CLOSE-UP  OF   A   SHEARING   MACHINE   IN   A   GREAT 

WOOLEN    ESTABLISHMENT.      NOTE    THE    PILES    OF 

CLOTH  WHERE  IT  HAS  LEFT  THE  MACHINE 


Manufacture  and  Use  of  Shoddy  85 

raw  wool.  Sometimes,  the  process  of  shredding  is  carried  further 
by  putting  the  materials  through  a  carding  machine,  known  in  the 
shoddy  industry  as  a  garnetting  machine. 

All  the  processes  to  which  shoddy  is  subjected  are  the  same  as 
those  used  in  the  preparation  of  virgin  wool,  except  that  the  virgin 
wool  is  scoured  and  does  not  have  to  be  stripped  before  dyeing. 
After  the  shoddy  has  come  through  the  picking  and  garnetting  proc- 
esses it  is  all  pure  wool  fiber,  varying  in  length  and  strength  accord- 
ing to  the  material  from  which  it  has  been  recovered  and  the  extent 
to  which  this  material  has  previously  been  worn.  The  shoddy  now 
is  in  a  spinnable  state.  Usually  it  is  mixed  with  virgin  wool  before 
being  spun  into  yarn;  but  sometimes  it  is  mixed  with  cotton  and 
sometimes  it  is  spun  into  yarn  without  being  mixed  with  any  other 
material. 

The  quality  of  a  shoddy  fabric  depends,  as  already  remarked, 
upon  the  grade  of  shoddy  used,  the  grade  of  virgin  wool  used,  the 
percentage  of  shoddy  to  virgin  wool  in  the  fabric  and  the  skill  with 
which  the  manufacturer  manipulates  the  shoddy.  Because  of  the 
shortness  of  fiber  it  is  difficult  to  work  shoddy  satisfactorily,  but  by 
careful  experimentation  many  mills  have  overcome  the  technical 
difficulties  of  manipulating  shoddy  and  are  able  to  produce  shoddy 
materials  that  compare  favorably  with  the  best  materials  made  from 
virgin  wool. 

Of  course  it  is  important  to  remember  that  a  given  grade  of 
shoddy  is  not  by  any  means  as  valuable  as  a  corresponding  grade 
of  virgin  wool.  But  it  is  important  also  to  remember  that  the 
amount  of  shoddy  or  virgin  wool  in  a  fabric  does  not  of  itself  indi- 
cate  the  quality  of  the  fabric,  since  some  grades  of  shoddy  are  very 
much  superior  to  some  grades  of  virgin  wool.  Experiments  con- 
ducted some  time  ago  with  three  grades  of  wool  by  the  Bureau  of 
Standards  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Commerce  demonstrated  the 
fact  that  a  fabric  made  from  reworked  wool  of  the  first  grade  was 
superior  to  a  fabric  made  from  virgin  wool  of  the  second  grade  and 
very  much  superior  to  a  fabric  made  from  virgin  wool  of  the  third 
grade.  It  was  demonstrated  also  that  wool  of  the  first  grade  could 


86  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

be  reworked  four  or  five  times  before  it  would  be  as  low  in  quality 
as  virgin  wool  of  the  third  grade. 

As  to  the  amount  of  shoddy  consumed  in  this  country,  opinions 
differ.  The  most  reliable  estimates  indicate  that  about  20  per  cent 
of  the  wool  fiber  used  by  the  domestic  woolen  and  worsted  industries 
is  shoddy.  Practically  all  of  this  is  consumed  by  the  woolen  indus- 
try. The  amount  of  shoddy  consumed  by  the  worsted  industry  is 
little  more  than  one  per  cent.  The  lower  grades  of  shoddy  are  used 
to  a  very  slight  extent  in  the  United  States. 

Shoddy  is  used  for  the  most  part  in  felted  woolens  and  blankets. 
Some  overcoatings,  such  as  meltons  and  chinchillas,  are  made  largely 
or  entirely  of  shoddy,  and  some  of  these  have  excellent  appearance 
and  wearing  quality.  It  is  unquestionable  that  many  shoddy  fabrics 
are  practically  worthless,  and  that  shoddy  is  used  sometimes  by 
unscrupulous  manufacturers  to  make  an  inferior  fabric  which  can 
be  palmed  off  on  unwary  buyers  as  a  good  one.  But  as  a  rule  shoddy 
is  used  legitimately  to  make  a  good,  warm,  durable  fabric  which  can 
be  sold  at  a  much  lower  price  than  a  fabric  of  equal  quality  made 
altogether  from  virgin  wool.  On  this  subject  a  special  report  on 
the  shoddy  industry  of  England  and  France,  published  some  years 
ago  by  the  Department  of  Commerce,  makes  the  following  comment: 

"A  hundred  years  ago,  wool  waste  and  old  rags  were  disposed  of 
by  burning  or  by  being  used  as  fertilizers;  but  now  they  enter 
largely  into  the  clothing  requirements  of  the  world,  and  by  their 
cheapening  effect  have  done  much  to  popularize  woolen  clothing  for 
the  masses.  The  increasing  use  of  waste  materials  and  of  the  by- 
products of  manufacture  is  a  sign  of  the  increasing  economic  effi- 
ciency of  mankind,  and  as  the  world  is  rapidly  becoming  more  and 
more  crowded,  the  economic  use  of  all  available  fibers  will  become 
of  more  and  more  importance." 


CHAPTER  XI 
MOHAIR,  ALPACA  AND  OTHER  FIBERS 

WHILE  wool  generally  is  understood  to  mean  the  hair  of 
sheep  it  has  a  much  wider  meaning  scientifically.  Strictly 
speaking,  all  animals  are  provided  with  a  covering  either 
of  feathers  or  of  hair.  There  are  various  kinds  of  hair,  such 
as  bristle  hair,  beard  hair  and  wool  hair.  Beard  hair  is  the  main 
covering  of  aboriginal  sheep  and  goats.  In  addition  to  beard  hair, 
these  animals  have  a  certain  amount  of  soft,  downy  hair,  or  wool 
hair,  and  by  careful  breeding  through  many  generations,  as  in  the 
case  of  domesticated  sheep,  this  wool  hair  has  been  developed  until 
it  has  supplanted  the  beard  hair  largely  or  altogether. 

In  chemical  composition  wool  hair  and  true  hair  are  alike;  but 
they  have  certain  physical  differences.  The  essential  difference  is 
that  wool  hair,  viewed  microscopically,  is  covered  with  a  number  of 
miniature  scales,  while  these  scales  are  lacking  in  true  hair.  All 
scaly  hairs,  therefore,  are  strictly  classifiable  as  wool.  In  addition 
to  the  hair  of  domesticated  sheep,  this  classification  includes  the 
hair  of  certain  goats,  of  camels  and  dromedaries,  and  of  a  species  of 
South  American  animal  known  scientifically  as  auchenia  and  popu- 
larly as  camel  sheep. 

The  wool  of  sheep  differs  from  the  wool  of  other  animals  in  the 
same  classification  chiefly  by  the  fact  that  it  is  more  wavy  and  that 
the  scales  on  the  fiber  have  distinctly  raised  or  serrated  edges, 
whereas  in  the  wool  of  other  animals  the  scales  tend  to  fit  smoothly 
into  one  another,  with  comparatively  slight  serrations  or  no  per- 
ceptible serrations  at  all.  This  distinction,  of  course,  is  not  exact, 
since  certain  kinds  of  sheep's  wool,  such  as  the  luster  wools  from 
pure  bred  Lincolns  and  Leicesters,  approach  in  character  the  wools 
of  the  goat  family,  just  as  some  of  the  latter  are  virtually  indistin- 
guishable from  true  hair. 

Generally,  however,  it  may  be  said  that  sheep's  wool  is  more 
wavy  and  serrated  than  other  wools,  and  it  is  these  qualities  which 

[87] 


88  Wool,  the  Worltfs  Comforter 

give  it  its  superior  value  for  textile  purposes.  Next  in  value  come 
the  wools  of  certain  cultivated  varieties  of  goat,  chiefly  the  Angora, 
Cashmere  and  Thibet  goats.  Apparently,  goat's  hair  has  been  used 
for  textile  purposes  from  very  ancient  times.  We  find  it  among  the 
materials  which  Moses  commanded  his  followers  to  take  with  them 
in  the  flight  from  Egypt,  and  we  learn  from  Exodus  (XXXVI,  14) 
that  "the  wise  workmen  wove  eleven  curtains  of  goat  wool,  thirty 
ells  long,  four  ells  broad,  all  of  the  same  size."  In  later  times,  as 
we  gather  from  Aristotle  and  other  ancient  writers,  goats  were  culti- 
vated expressly  for  their  wool,  notably  in  that  part  of  Asia  Minor 
known  as  Phrygia. 

The  ancient  Phrygia  included  the  modern  Turkish  province  of 
Angora,  which  has  become  famous  as  the  home  of  the  Angora  or 
mohair  goat.  Fabrics  made  from  mohair  were  introduced  to  West- 
ern Europe  during  the  sixteenth  century  and  grew  so  steadily  in 
popularity  that  the  Turkish  Government,  in  order  to  retain  a 
monopoly  of  this  valuable  trade,  forbade  the  export  of  raw  mohair,  or 
tiftik,  as  it  is  called  in  Turkey.  This  embargo  was  maintained  until 
1820,  when  it  was  lifted  through  the  influence  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. During  the  ensuing  years  the  manufacture  of  mohair  fabrics 
became  an  important  industry  in  Western  Europe,  and  the  increas- 
ing demand  for  mohair  led  to  the  crossing  of  the  original  pure 
Angora  with  the  common  Kurd  goat. 

As  a  result,  the  production  of  mohair  spread  from  the  province 
of  Angora  throughout  Asia  Minor  generally,  and  was  introduced 
into  Cape  Colony,  Australia,  South  America  and  the  United  States. 
At  the  present  time  Asia  Minor  and  Cape  Colony  are  the  two  chief 
sources  of  the  world's  supply  of  mohair.  The  United  States  is  next 
in  importance,  although  its  production  is  not  nearly  sufficient  for 
the  needs  of  the  domestic  industry.  American  mohair,  on  the  whole, 
is  inferior  to  the  foreign  product,  because  it  contains  a  larger 
amount  of  kempy  fiber  (beard  hairs)  which  will  not  dye,  and  because 
most  of  it  must  be  shorn  twice  a  year,  so  that  it  is  shorter  in  staple. 
Texas  produces  the  finest  fleeces,  but  unfortunately  the  wool  of 
Texas  Angora  tends  to  fall  off  if  it  is  allowed  to  grow  an  entire 


CLOSE-UP  OF  A  LOOM  IN  A  BIG  WEAVING  MILL,  SHOW- 
ING THE  WOVEN  CLOTH  BEING  WOUND  ON  THE  ROLLER 
AT  BOTTOM,  AS  IT  Is  FINISHED 


Mohair,  Alpaca  and  Other  Fibers  91 

year,  and  consequently  it  must  be  shorn  before  it  has  reached  its 
full  length.  Oregon  fleeces  grow  for  a  full  year  and  are  very  long 
in  staple,  but  are  not  as  fine  as  the  best  Texas  grades. 

Mohair  is  a  hard,  fine  fiber,  of  very  long  staple  (sometimes  as 
long  as  12  inches),  with  a  high,  silky  luster  and  with  little  or  no 
curl.  It  is  of  a  hard,  wiry  nature;  the  scales  on  its  surface  are 
thin  and  flat,  and  it  will  not  felt  to  any  considerable  extent.  Length 
and  luster  are  the  chief  considerations  in  judging  its  value.  The 
natural  color  of  mohair  is  a  pure  white,  but  sometimes  it  is  gray. 
It  does  not  take  dyes  as  readily  as  sheep's  wool,  and  dyestuffs,  fur- 
thermore, are  apt  to  give  it  a  harsher  feel.  The  finest  mohair  dress 
goods,  therefore,  usually  are  woven  with  undyed  mohair  filling  and 
dyed  cotton  warp.  Mohair  is  used  for  plushes  and  other  upholstery 
fabrics,  imitation  furs,  dress  goods,  summer  suits  for  men,  carriage 
robes,  rugs,  braids  and  various  other  purposes. 

Cashmere  wool  is  obtained  from  the  Cashmere  goat,  a  small, 
elegant  animal  bred  from  very  ancient  times  in  the  Himalayas.  The 
term,  however,  is  used  generally  to  include  also  the  wool  of  the 
Thibet  goat.  The  latter  is  a  larger  and  stronger  animal  than  the 
genuine  Cashmere  goat,  but  produces  a  wool  that  is  somewhat 
similar  in  nature,  although  not  .so  fine  and  beautiful.  It  is  some- 
times referred  to  as  the  Thibet  Angora.  Cashmere  wool  is  compara- 
tively short  in  staple  (l^  to  3^2  inches)  and  has  visible  scales  with 
fairly  pronounced  serrations.  Its  spinning  and  felting  qualities, 
therefore,  are  somewhat  akin  to  those  of  pure  merino  wool.  It  is 
used  for  fine  Oriental  shawls  (Cashmere  shawls)  and  for  fine  fabrics 
requiring  a  very  soft  nap. 

The  species  of  animals  known  as  the  auchenia,  or  camel  sheep, 
include  the  auchenia  paco  (or  alpaca),  the  auchenia  llama  and  the 
auchenia  vicuna,  all  of  which  are  native  to  the  South  American  Cor- 
dilleras. The  name  alpaca  is  applied  commonly  to  the  wool  from 
both  the  auchenia  paco  and  the  auchenia  llama,  although  strictly  it 
is  applicable  only  to  the  former.  The  llama  is  a  wild  goat  about  the 
size  of  a  deer  and  produces  a  long,  coarse  and  inelastic  wool  of  a 
white  or  brown  color.  The  true  alpaca  is  obtained  from  the  domesti- 


92  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

cated  auchenia  paco.  It  averages  about  6  to  8  inches  in  staple,  is 
slightly  wavy,  has  very  faint  serrations  and  is  rather  fine  in  feel. 
The  natural  colors  are  white,  red,  brown  and  black.  Alpaca  is  used 
for  linings,  summer  suits  and  dress  goods.  Alpaca  dress  goods  have 
a  cotton  warp  and  alpaca  filling. 

The  auchenia  vicuna  is  a  wild  goat  about  the  size  of  a  sheep.  It 
is  now  very  rare,  and  little  true  vicuna  wool  is  obtainable.  The 
genuine  vicuna  is  a  fine,  silky  wool  with  a  high  luster,  a  beautiful 
reddish  brown  color  and  considerable  felting  quality.  Commercially, 
the  term  vicuna  is  used  to  describe  a  yarn  spun  from  a  mixture  of 
sheep's  wool  and  cotton  or  an  all-cotton  yarn  finished  in  imitation 
of  a  woolen  yarn  (often  referred  to  as  vigogne  yarn).  It  is  used 
also  to  mean  a  slightly  napped  fabric  made  of  soft  wool,  sometimes 
mixed  with  cotton,  in  imitation  of  a  genuine  vicuna  fabric. 

Camel  hair  is  obtained  from  the  camel  or  the  dromedary.  It  is  a 
very  fine,  rather  curly  hair,  of  great  strength  and  softness,  averag- 
ing about  4  inches  in  staple.  Its  natural  color  is  yellow,  red  or 
brown.  It  is  used  either  alone  or  mixed  with  sheep's  wool  for 
natural  color  camel  cloth,  dress  goods,  shawls,  hosiery,  blankets, 
carpets,  felt  hats  and  other  purposes.  The  camel  hair  cloth  of 
commerce  is  not  always  made  from  genuine  camel's  hair,  as  the 
name  is  used  to  mean  a  fine,  soft  dress  fabric,  with  a  glossy  and 
slightly  hairy  finish,  made  from  long  staple  sheep's  wool. 

Various  true  hairs,  such  as  those  of  the  cow  and  the  horse,  are 
used  to  a  limited  extent  for  textile  purposes.  Cow  hair  (mostly 
from  Siberia)  often  is  employed  in  the  coarser  carpets,  blankets  and 
cheap  felted  goods.  Horsehair  cloth  is  used  for  upholstery,  as  stiff- 
ening and  underlining  for  coats  and  for  other  purposes.  But  true 
hair  has  little  value  as  a  textile  material,  since  it  lacks  the  scaly 
surface  of  wool  hair  and  the  fibers  consequently  will  not  hold  to- 
gether when  twisted  into  yarn.  Thus,  horsehair  must  be  glued  to 
a  binding  thread  of  cotton  or  hemp  before  it  can  be  spun,  and  cow 
hair  must  be  mixed  with  wool.  In  fact,  the  hair  cloth  of  commerce 
has  usually  a  warp  of  cotton,  linen  or  worsted,  and  a  weft  consisting 
of  single  horsehairs  (from  the  mane  or  tail)  which  have  not  been 


Mohair,  Alpaca  and  Other  Fibers  93 

twisted  into  yarn.  Sometimes  it  is  made  altogether  from  hard-spun 
cotton  yarns  treated  with  a  heavy  sizing  in  imitation  of  real  horse- 
hair. 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  produce  artificially  a  fiber 
with  the  characteristic  qualities  of  wool.  The  most  common  method 
of  doing  this  is  to  treat  vegetable  fibers,  such  as  jute  and  dha  (Sene- 
galese hemp),  with  certain  chemicals  which  give  them  the  physical 
appearance  of  the  wool  fiber.  Another  method  is  to  dissolve  the 
fibers  recovered  from  old  rags  and  to  evolve  threads  from  the  result- 
ing solution — a  process  similar  to  that  used  for  making  artificial 
silk.  But  none  of  the  substitutes  for  natural  wool  has  any  particular 
value  and  their  commercial  importance  is  of  the  slightest. 


CHAPTER  XII 
DICTIONARY  OF  WOOL  FABRICS 

IN  the  strict  sense,  it  is  impossible  to  define  exactly  what  consti- 
tutes any  given  woolen  or  worsted  fabric.  This  is  true  even  of 
the  most  familiar  staples,  such  as  tweeds  or  serges.  The  nature 
of  even  such  staples  varies  greatly  according  to  the  kind  of  raw 
material  used,  the  manner  in  which  the  raw  materials  are  blended, 
and  the  skill,  care  and  equipment  employed  in  the  manufacturing 
processes.  One  mill  may  make  a  handsome  and  durable  fabric  out 
of  low  grade  stock,  while  another  may  make  an  inferior  fabric  out  of 
comparatively  high-grade  stock. 

When  it  comes  to  fancies,  of  course,  the  variety  of  results  is  much 
greater.  A  modern  loom  is  like  a  chess  board,  on  which  the  possible 
combinations  of  moves  are  almost  unlimited.  If  one -adds  to  these 
variations  in  weave  the  innumerable  variations  obtainable  in  yarns, 
colors  and  finishing  processes,  it  can  easily  be  imagined  that  the 
different  results  obtainable  are  beyond  count.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
every  season  sees  a  flood  of  novelty  fabrics.  Some  of  these  find  a 
limited  acceptance,  some  of  them  last  for  a  season  or  two,  while 
some  of  them  win  a  permanent  place  and  eventually  become  staples. 

Naturally  it  would  be  impracticable  to  compile  a  comprehensive 
dictionary  of  such  fabrics,  and  for  this  reason  the  following  list 
attempts  to  include  only  the  most  familiar  staples.  Even  these,  as 
we  have  remarked,  are  susceptible  of  unlimited  variations.  But 
generally  speaking,  every  staple  fabric  has  certain  typical  charac- 
teristics, and  it  is  merely  these  typical  characteristics  which  the 
ensuing  descriptions  attempt  to  define. 

Widths  and  weights  are  not  given,  since  these,  too,  may  vary  a 
good  deal  in  any  given  fabric.  But,  as  a  rule,  dress  fabrics  weigh 
from  8  to  14  ounces  to  the  yard  and  measure  54  to  56  inches  in  width. 
Coatings  may  weigh  anywhere  from  16  to  36  ounces  to  the  yard. 

ASTRACHAN.  A  woolen  fabric  with  a  curled  pile,  made  in  imi- 
tation of  astrachan  fur.  The  best  grades  are  woven,  while  the  in- 

[94] 


Dictionary  of  Wool  Fabrics  95 

ferior  grades  are  knitted.  The  woven  fabric  is  made  with  a  warp 
pile,  obtained  by  running  a  set  of  warp  threads  over  wires  (see 
PILE  FABRICS).  The  warp  yarns  used  for  the  pile  usually  are 
either  luster  wool  or  mohair,  while  the  ground  warp  may  be  either 
cotton  or  wool.  Woolen  yarns,  very  often  spun  from  mill  waste,  are 
used  for  the  filling.  After  it  leaves  the  loom  the  fabric  is  crabbed, 
scoured,  dyed  and  finished  without  pressing.  The  cheaper  grades  are 
woven  without  a  pile  and  get  a  napped  finish.  Astrachan  is  used  for 
coats  and  trimmings. 

BANNOCKBURN.  (See  TWEED.) 

BEAVER.  A  soft,  heavy  woolen  fabric  napped  on  the  face  or  on 
both  sides.  It  is  made  either  with  a  plain  weave,  using  one  set  of 
hard-twist  warp  yarns  and  two  sets  of  filling  yarns,  or  else  with  a 
double-cloth  weave.  For  the  yarns  which  show  on  the  face,  it  is 
customary  to  use  a  fine  wool  of  good  felting  quality,  such  as  Aus- 
tralian merino  or  Ohio  fine  delaine.  These  yarns  are  spun  to  fine 
counts.  After  it  leaves  the  loom  the  fabric  is  closely  felted,  wet 
napped  on  one  or  both  sides,  shorn,  steamed,  dyed,  wet  brushed, 
shorn  again  to  even  the  nap,  and  pressed.  It  is  used  for  overcoats. 

BEDFORD  CORDS.  A  strong,  heavy  woolen  fabric  with  a  warp- 
wise  cord.  The  warp  yarns  are  either  single  or  two-ply,  and  are  spun 
with  a  hard  twist  from  fine  crossbred  wool  of  long  staple.  The 
fabric  may  be  dyed  either  in  the  yarn  or  the  piece.  It  is  finished  by 
being  fulled,  steam  brushed,  closely  shorn  and  pressed.  It  is  used 
mostly  for  sports  skirts  and  costumes. 

BROADCLOTH.  There  are  so  many  different  qualities  and 
weights  of  this  fabric  that  it  is  difficult  to  define.  Generally  it  may 
be  described  as  a  fine,  full-bodied  woolen  cloth  with  a  very  smooth 
finish.  Sometimes  it  is  made  with  a  worsted  warp.  The  filling  for 
the  better  qualities  is  spun  from  fine  wool  of  good  felting  property, 
such  as  Ohio  delaine  or  Australian  merino,  while  for  the  medium 
qualities  merino  noils  or  fine  shoddy  may  be  used.  Since  the  fabric 
is  thoroughly  fulled  an  inferior  cloth  of  deceptively  good  appear- 
ance may  be  made  with  low  grade  wool  or  shoddy.  Broadcloth  is 
plain  woven,  and  after  leaving  the  loom  it  is  well  fulled,  napped, 


96  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

closely  shorn,  steamed,  pressed  and  dyed.  Subsequently  it  is  wet 
brushed,  shorn  again,  and  again  steamed  and  pressed.  It  is  used 
for  suits  and  coats. 

CASSIMERE.  A  twilled  woolen  or  worsted  fabric  made  in  a 
variety  of  weights,  qualities  and  designs.  Many  different  grades  of 
wool,  waste  and  shoddy  are  used  in  its  composition.  As  a  rule  it  is 
closely  woven  from  hard-spun  yarns  and  receives  what  is  known  as 
a  clear  finish,  or,  in  other  words,  a  finish  which  does  not  obscure 
the  weave.  This  consists  of  a  light,  dry  napping  and  a  close  shear- 
ing. Subsequently,  the  fabric  is  brushed,  sprayed  and  heavily 
pressed.  It  is  used  mostly  for  men's  suits. 

CHEVIOT.  A  rough,  coarse,  twilled  woolen  fabric,  originally 
made  from  the  coarse,  curly  wool  of  the  Cheviot  sheep,  whence  it 
gets  its  name.  Nowadays,  it  is  made  usually  from  crossbred  wool, 
and  in  the  lower  grades  it  is  likely  to  be  heavily  adulterated  with 
cotton,  shoddy  and  flocks.  As  a  rule  it  is  made  with  warp  and 
filling  yarns  of  contrasting  colors,  and  novelty  yarns  (q.  v.)  are  used 
sometimes  to  produce  special  effects.  The  yarns  are  spun  from  wool 
dyed  in  the  raw  stock.  Cheviot  is  closely  fulled  and  is  finished  with 
a  rather  thick,  curly  nap.  It  is  lightly  sheared  to  even  the  nap  and 
subsequently  is  steamed.  It  is  used  for  suits,  coats  and  dresses. 

CHINCHILLA.  A  soft,  heavy  woolen  fabric  with  a  curled  pile. 
It  is  loosely  woven,  generally  as  a  double  cloth;  but  sometimes  as  a 
three-ply  cloth.  As  a  rule,  it  is  felted  and  wet  napped,  but  some 
fine  chinchillas  are  made  with  a  long  pile  formed  by  floats  of  filling 
thread,  and  are  not  felted.  The  distinguishing  feature  of  chinchilla 
is  the  close  curl  given  to  the  pile  in  the  finishing  process.  This  is 
done  by  means  of  a  special  machine.  In  this  machine  the  fabric  is 
pressed  between  two  flat  surfaces,  of  which  the  lower  one  is  sta- 
tionary while  the  upper  one  moves  with  a  rotary  motion,  rubbing' the 
pile  into  little  curly  nubs.  Chinchillas  seldom  are  shorn  or  pressed, 
although  a  slight  shearing  may  be  necessary  sometimes  to  even  the 
pile.  They  are  made  usually  in  solid  colors,  or  with  fancy  backs 
from  stock-dyed  wool.  They  are  used  for  overcoatings. 

CLAY  WORSTEDS.     (See  WORSTEDS.) 


Dictionary  of  Wool  Fabrics  97 

COVERT  CLOTH.  This  name  commonly  is  applied  to  a  class  of 
woolen  fabrics  which  are  properly  described  as  Venetians  (see 
VENETIAN).  The  genuine  covert  cloth  is  made  with  a  twill  weave 
from  ply  yarns  of  mixed  colors.  The  yarns  are  mule-spun  from  dyed 
wool  of  fine  quality,  and  two  yarns  of  different  colors  are  twisted 
together  for  the  warp,  while  two-ply  or  single  yarns  of  one  color  are 
used  for  the  filling.  The  color  of  the  filling  yarns  corresponds,  as  a 
rule,  to  the  darker  color  of  the  mixed  warp  yarns.  Covert  cloth 
receives  a  clear  finish.  It  is  lightly  fulled  and  napped,  closely 
sheared,  brushed,  sprayed  and  pressed.  It  is  used  for  coats  and 
dresses — chiefly  sports  costumes. 

CREPE.  A  soft,  drapy  fabric  with  a  crinkled  surface.  As  a  rule 
the  crepe  effect  is  produced  by  using  yarns  with  an  extra  twist, 
which  makes  them  crumple  up  when  they  are  unwound  off  the  bob- 
bins in  the  weaving.  Crepe  yarns  have  twice  or  three  times  the 
amount  of  twist  given  to  yarns  for  other  fabrics.  Sometimes  the 
crepe  yarns  are  given  both  a  regular  and  reverse  twist.  Occasion- 
ally the  crepe  effect  is  produced  by  means  of  a  fancy  twill  weave. 
Crepes  are  made  in  a  variety  of  weights  and  qualities,  and  with  either 
woolen  or  worsted  yarns.  After  coming  from  the  loom  they  are 
crabbed,  piece-dyed,  brushed,  sheared  and  pressed.  Crepe  is  a  dress 
fabric. 

DUVETYN.  A  soft,  twilled  fabric  with  a  fine,  silky  nap.  It  is 
made,  as  a  rule,  with  single  or  two-ply  worsted  yarns  for  warp  and 
mixed  wool  and  waste  silk  or  tussah  yarns  for  filling.  Some  duve- 
tyns  have  an  all-woolen  filling,  while  some  are  made  entirely  of  silk. 
The  latter  are  properly  described  as  all-silk  duvetyns.  The  regular 
duvetyn  has  a  good,  long-staple  crossbred  wool  for  warp  and  a  fine, 
soft,  merino  wool  mixed  with  waste  silk  for  filling.  It  is  stock-dyed. 
After  being  fulled  it  is  wet  napped,  wet  brushed,  shorn  to  even  the 
nap,  steamed,  tentered,  dried  and  brushed.  It  is  used  for  coats  and 
dresses. 

EPONGE.  A  soft,  spongy  cloth,  made  with  novelty  yarns  of 
coarse  sizes.  (See  NOVELTY  YARNS.)  As  a  rule  it  has  either  a 
novelty  yarn  warp  and  plain  filling  or  a  plain  warp  and  novelty 


98  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

yarn  filling.  It  is  woven  with  a  plain  weave,  and  may  be  either  stock- 
or  piece-dyed.  It  receives  practically  no  finishing,  except  for  a 
slight  shearing.  Eponge  is  used  for  dresses,  trimming  and  drapery. 

See  RATINE. 

FRIEZE.  A  coarse,  heavy,  harsh-feeling  woolen  fabric  with  an 
irregular  nap.  The  name  was  applied  originally  to  a  rough  fabric 
made  in  Friesland,  and  later  came  to  be  identified  with  an  overcoat- 
ing fabric  made  in  Ireland  from  coarse  native  wool.  Ordinarily, 
frieze  is  made  from  coarse  wool,  wool  waste  and  shoddy.  The  lower 
grades  contain  a  very  large  percentage  of  shoddy.  It  is  dyed  in  the 
stock,  woven  with  a  plain  or  twill  weave,  well  fulled,  napped,  sheared 
and  pressed.  It  is  used  for  overcoats. 

GABARDINE.  A  strong  worsted  fabric  made  with  a  twill  weave, 
and  showing  fine,  diagonal  cords.  The  better  grades  have  a  hard- 
spun  two-ply  warp  and  a  coarser  two-ply  filling,  while  the  lower 
grades  have  a  two-ply  warp  and  coarse  single  filling.  As  a  rule,  it 
is  very  closely  woven,  showing  about  twice  as  many  warp  yarns 
as  filling  yarns  to  the  inch.  After  coming  from  the  loom  it  is 
scoured,  crabbed,  dyed,  brushed,  sheared,  brushed  again,  sprayed 
and  pressed.  Gabardine  is  used  for  suits  and  dresses,  and  also,  to 
a  large  extent,  for  raincoats.  For  the  latter  purpose  the  fabric  must 
be  waterproofed.  There  are  many  different  processes  for  water- 
proofing fabrics,  most  of  which  are  patented  and  confined  to  indi- 
vidual manufacturers.  Among  the  substances  used  are  rubber,  wax, 
oils,  varnishes,  acids,  oxides  and  metallic  salts. 

HOMESPUN.  The  original  homespun,  as  the  name  implies,  was 
made  from  yarns  spun  on  the  old  spinning  wheel.  Such  yarns  were 
rough  and  irregular,  and  the  fabric  woven  from  them  had,  conse- 
quently, a  rough,  nubby  appearance.  The  homespun  familiar  to 
commerce  is  an  imitation  of  the  original  article.  The  yarns  are  spun 
into  coarse  sizes  from  medium-grade  wool  of  fairly  long  staple, 
which  is  dyed  in  the  stock  and  blended  to  produce  mixed  color 
effects  in  the  yarn.  Sometimes  camel's  hair  tops,  mohair  or  alpaca 
are  blended  in  with  the  wool.  The  weave  may  be  either  plain  or 
twill.  After  leaving  the  loom,  the  fabric  is  fulled,  washed,  dried  and 


WHEN  You  LOOK  AT  THIS  MACHINERY,  A  VERY  SMALL 

PART  OF  THAT  USED  IN  A  WOOLEN  MILL,  You  GET  AN 

IDEA  OF  THE  AMOUNT  OF  MONEY  IT  TAKES  TO  SWING 

A  TEXTILE  ENTERPRISE 


Dictionary  of  Wool  Fabrics  101 

brushed,  lightly  sheared,  steamed  and  pressed.  Homespun  is  used 
for  suits  and  dresses. 

KERSEY.  A  strong,  smooth  fabric  somewhat  similar  to  broad- 
cloth, except  that  it  is  much  heavier.  Originally,  in  fact,  the  name 
described  simply  an  inferior  grade  of  broadcloth.  The  filling  yarns 
in  kerseys  are  spun  usually  from  fine  wool  of  good  felting  quality, 
merino  noils  or  fine  shoddy  being  most  often  used.  The  fabric  is 
woven,  as  a  rule,  with  a  twill  weave,  and  often  it  is  woven  as  a 
double  cloth.  It  is  very  thoroughly  fulled,  wet  napped,  sheared, 
brushed  and  dyed.  Then  it  is  dried,  brushed  again,  steamed,  sheared 
again,  brushed  once  more,  sprayed  and  pressed.  It  may  receive 
either  a  dull  or  a  lustrous  finish,  the  latter  being  obtained  by  a  heavy, 
hot  pressing.  Like  all  closely  fulled  fabrics  kersey  may  contain  a 
large  proportion  of  low  grade  shoddy  and  flocks.  It  is  used  mostly 
for  coats. 

MACKINAW.  A  soft,  heavy  woolen  cloth,  usually  napped  on 
'both  sides  and  made  up  in  fancy  plaids  in  high  colors.  The  name 
was  applied  originally  to  the  heavy,  colored  blankets  purchased  by 
the  Indians  of  the  Great  Lakes  region  from  Fort  Mackinaw,  which 
was  then  the  most  remote  trading  post  in  that  territory.  Later  the 
cloth  was  used  for  coats  by  lumbermen  and  hunters  in  Michigan,  and 
eventually  it  became  generally  popular  for  winter  sports  wear.  It 
comes  in  many  different  qualities.  Usually  it  is  made  altogether 
from  coarse  wool  or  a  mixture  of  coarse  wool  and  shoddy.  Sometimes 
it  is  made  with  a  cotton  warp  and  a  shoddy  or  wool  waste  filling.  The 
yarns  used  are  soft  and  heavy.  It  is  thoroughly  fulled,  scoured, 
napped  on  both  sides  and  sometimes  waterproofed.  When  it  is  woven 
as  a  double  cloth — as  is  frequently  the  case — it  receives  only  a  slight 
fulling. 

MELTON.  A  strong,  heavy,  semi-finished  woolen  fabric,  used 
chiefly  for  overcoats.  The  stock  used  for  making  meltons,  as  a  rule, 
is  a  mixture  of  medium-staple  crossbred  wool  and  short-staple  fine 
wool  or  fine  merino  noils.  The  heavy  weights  are  woven  usually 
with  a  double  warp,  while  the  lighter  weights  sometimes  have  a  cot- 


102  Wool,  the  Worlds  Comforter 

ton  warp.  It  is  heavily  fulled,  napped  on  the  face  and  closely  shorn 
to  show  the  texture. 

MONTAGNAC.  A  soft,  fleecy  fabric  with  a  thick,  curly  nap. 
It  is  made  with  a  twill  weave  from  fine,  soft  wool.  After  leaving  the 
loom  it  is  fulled,  washed,  napped,  cropped  to  even  the  nap,  and  dried. 
Then  it  is  put  through  a  whipping  machine,  which  makes  the  nap 
stand  up  straight.  Subsequently  it  goes  through  a  machine  which 
wets  the  nap  without  dampening  the  cloth,  and  is  dried  by  hot  air, 
which  causes  the  nap  to  curl  back.  It  is  finished  without  shearing 
or  pressing.  Montagnac  is  used  for  overcoats. 

MOUSSELINE  DE  LAINE.  A  fine,  light,  plain-woven  worsted 
fabric  of  open  texture.  The  name  is  French  for  wool  muslin.  It 
was  originated  by  a  man  named  Jourdain  at  Troixvilles,  France,  in 
1826.  It  is  made  with  fine,  clear  worsted  yarns  or  with  a  cotton 
warp  and  fine  worsted  filling.  It  receives  a  clear  worsted  finish  and 
is  either  printed  or  dyed.  It  is  a  dress  fabric. 

NOVELTY  YARN  FABRICS.  There  is  a  great  variety  of  fancy 
fabrics  made  altogether  or  in  part  with  novelty  yarns,  and  frequently 
novelty  yarns  are  used  to  produce  nubs  and  spotted  color  effects 
on  certain  staple  fabrics,  such  as  cheviots.  These  yarns  are  made 
in  a  number  of  ways.  Generally  they  are  made  by  twisting  two  or 
more  yarns  into  one.  For  instance,  a  coarse  yarn  may  be  twisted 
with  a  fine  yarn  or  a  colored  yarn  with  one  or  more  bleached  yarns. 
The  coarse  yarn  or  the  colored  yarn  may  be  delivered  at  intermittent 
speed  to  the  spindles,  with  the  result  that  it  forms  small  loops  which 
appear  as  coarse  or  colored  nubs  in  the  finished  fabric.  Sometimes 
the  same  effect  is  produced  by  using  worsted  filling  yarns  with  a 
spiral  twist,  which  curl  up  into  loops  or  nubs  when  the  fabric  is 
fulled.  Imitations  of  novelty  yarns  are  produced  also  by  methods 
of  carding  and  spinning  which  result  in  coarse  uneven  woolen  yarns. 
Frequently  nubs  are  made  from  short,  curly  wools  in  the  carding 
process,  and  are  subsequently  dyed,  mixed  with  raw  stock  and  spun 
into  nubby  yarns.  The  genuine  novelty  yarns,  as  a  rule,  are  either 
all  worsted  or  mixed  worsted  and  cotton.  Typical  examples  of  nov- 
elty yarn  fabrics  are  eponge  and  ratine.  Imitations  of  novelty  yarn 


Dictionary  of  Wool  Fabrics  103 

effects  are  sometimes  obtained  by  means  of  the  terry  weave  (see 
PILE  FABRICS). 

OUTING  FLANNEL.  A  soft,  twilled,  slightly  napped  fabric 
used  for  outing  clothes.  It  is  made  from  fine-spun  woolen  yarns  or 
from  mixed  cotton  and  woolen  yarns.  It  is  stock-dyed,  twill-woven, 
fulled,  washed,  dried,  brushed  up  to  raise  a  slight  nap,  sheared  and 
pressed.  The  name  is  often  applied  to  a  cotton  flannelette  with  the 
same  surface  characteristics. 

PILE  FABRICS.  This  name  is  used  to  designate  a  large  class 
of  fabrics  in  which  a  certain  proportion  of  the  yarns  or  fibers  are 
raised  from  the  body  of  the  cloth  so  as  to  produce  a  napped  or  furry 
surface.  When  this  is  done  by  a  napping  machine  in  the  finishing 
process  the  fabric  usually  is  known  as  a  napped  fabric  although 
sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  velours,  it  is  included  under  the  heading 
of  pile  fabrics.  Strictly  speaking  a  pile  fabric  is  one  in  which 
the  pile  effect  is  obtained  in  the  weaving  process.  There  are  a 
number  of  different  ways  in  which  this  is  done.  A  common  way  is 
by  means  of  a  variation  in  the  twill  weave,  known  as  the  terry 
motion  (from  the  French  tirer,  meaning  to  draw  or  pull).  Two  sets 
of  warp  threads  are  used,  one  of  which  is  very  slack.  As  the  filling 
threads  are  beaten  up  by  the  reed  in  the  weaving  they  draw  the  slack 
warp  threads  into  loops.  Sometimes  the  same  result  is  obtained 
by  inserting  wires  weft-wise  in  the  cloth,  over  which  the  warp  threads 
pass  in  the  weaving,  leaving  loops  when  the  wires  are  withdrawn. 
Fabrics  produced  by  either  of  these  methods  are  known  as  warp- 
pile  fabrics.  When  the  loops  are  left  uncut  the  fabric  is  known  as 
a  loop-pile  fabric.  When  they  are  cut  the  fabric  is  known  as  a  cut- 
pile  fabric.  Cut-pile  fabrics  are  made  also  by  using  an  extra  set  of 
filling  threads  which  are  not  carried  all  the  way  across  the  cloth, 
like  the  regular  filling  threads,  but  are  floated  to  the  surface  at 
intervals  and  subsequently  sheared  to  even  the  pile.  This  is  known 
as  a  weft-pile.  Another  method  of  making  a  pile  fabric  is  by  means 
of  the  double-cloth  weave.  By  this  method  two  pieces  are  woven  at 
the  same  time,  face  to  face,  and  subsequently  cut  apart  by  a  knife. 
The  pile  is  formed  by  the  interlacing  of  threads  between  the  two 


104  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

cloths.  Imitations  of  novelty  yarn  fabrics,  such  as  eponge  and 
ratine  (q.  v.)  sometimes  are  made  by  means  of  the  terry  motion, 
above  mentioned,  the  loops  being  left  uncut. 

POPLIN.  A  strong,  durable  fabric  with  fine  cross-ribs,  made 
originally  with  an  organzine  warp  and  woolen  filling,  but  now  made 
of  all  worsted,  silk  and  worsted,  or  cotton  and  worsted.  The  average 
poplin  is  made  with  worsted  yarns  spun  on  the  French  system  from 
medium  grade  crossbred  wool.  The  rib  is  produced  by  using  a 
larger  size  yarn  for  the  filling  than  for  the  warp.  All-wool  poplins 
are  piece-dyed;  but  silk  or  cotton-mixed  poplins  are  yarn-dyed.  The 
goods  are  not  felted,  but  are  scoured,  crabbed,  brushed,  sheared, 
sprayed  and  pressed,  resulting  in  a  clear,  somewhat  lustrous  finish. 

PRUNELLA.  A  strong,  warp-face  fabric  made  in  a  satin  weave, 
usually  with  a  worsted  face  and  cotton  back.  As  a  rule  it  comes 
in  black  and  white  stripes.  The  worsted  yarns  are  spun  from  a 
fairly  coarse,  long-staple,  crossbred  wool  of  ^-blood  or  lower. 
After  being  woven  it  is  scoured,  crabbed,  dyed,  dried,  brushed, 
sheared,  sprayed  and  pressed.  It  is  used  chiefly  for  skirts  and  shoe 
tops. 

RATINE.  A  rough,  spongy  cloth  similar  to  eponge  (q.  v.).  The 
name  describes  an  effect  rather  than  a  fabric.  The  effect  is  obtained 
either  by  the  use  of  novelty  yarns  (q.  v.)  or  by  means  of  the  terry 
weave  (see  PILE  FABRICS).  Ratine  fabrics  are  used  chiefly  for 
dresses  and  coatings. 

SERGE.  The  name  was  applied  originally  to  a  twilled  worsted 
fabric  made  from  medium-count,  2-ply  yarns  (about  32's)  with  a 
very  distinct  twill  and  a  somewhat  harsh  feel.  Nowadays  the  name 
covers  almost  every  variety  of  clear-finished  twilled  worsteds,  espe- 
cially piece-dyes  in  navy  and  black.  Usually  it  is  made  with  a  2-ply 
warp  and  single  filling,  while  the  best  grades  are  made  with  2-ply 
yarns  in  both  warp  and  filling.  The  lower  grades  are  made  with 
single  warp  and  filling.  All  kinds  of  raw  stock  are  used  in  serges, 
from  low  crossbred  wool  in  the  cheaper  grades  to  fine  Australian 
merino  in  the  best  grades.  There  also  is  a  large  production  of 
cotton-warp  serges.  Serge  is  not  fulled  after  weaving,  but  is 


Dictionary  of  Wool  Fabrics  105 

crabbed,  dyed,  closely  sheared,  sprayed  and  pressed.  It  is  used  for 
suits  and  dresses.  Storm  serge  is  a  name  applied  to  a  light  serge 
(about  7  ounces  to  the  yard),  made  with  single  yarns  in  warp  and 
filling,  and  used  for  women's  coats. 

TRICOTINE.  Originally  this  name  was  applied  to  a  fairly  fine- 
gauge  knitted  fabric.  Nowadays  it  is  used  to  describe  a  fine  twilled 
worsted  fabric,  with  a  warp-wise  rib  effect,  obtained  by  groupings  of 
two  single  ends  with  a  distinct  space  between  each  group.  It  is 
made  with  single  yarns  in  warp  and  filling. 

TWEED.  A  somewhat  rough  woolen  fabric  similar  to  cheviot 
(q.  v.).  It  originated  in  Scotland,  where  it  was  made  from  homespun 
yarns  of  coarse  cheviot  wool.  Later  the  Scottish  tweed  makers  be- 
gan to  copy  the  colors  of  the  heather,  bracken  and  grasses  on  the 
moors,  and  produced  the  heather  mixtures  which  are  characteristic 
of  Scotch  tweeds.  This  range  of  colors  was  enlarged  by  Sir  John 
Lovat,  who  copied  the  blends  of  colors  in  the  rocks  of  the  Highlands 
during  the  hunting  season  (in  the  fall),  and  originated  the  famous 
Lovat  shades.  Tweeds  are  made,  as  a  rule,  from  fairly  coarse, 
medium-grade  wools  (usually  about  % -blood  grade),  and  are 
stock-dyed.  Some  qualities  are  made  from  Saxony  or  fine  Australian 
merino.  They  are  woven  either  in  a  plain  or  twill  weave,  with  2-ply 
warp  and  heavy  single  filling  or  2-ply  yarns  in  both  warp  and  filling. 
In  the  so-called  Bannockburn  tweeds  the  ply  yarns  contain  two  single 
yarns  of  different  colors.  Most  tweeds  are  woven  with  checks,  twills 
or  herringbone  patterns.  The  goods  are  slightly  fulled  after  weav- 
ing, and  subsequently  are  scoured,  dried,  steam-brushed,  lightly 
shorn  and  pressed.  Tweed  is  used  for  dresses,  suits  and  coats. 

VELOURS.  A  variety  of  woolen  fabrics,  all  of  which  are  char- 
acterized by  a  soft,  velvety  nap.  They  are  included  frequently  under 
the  heading  of  pile  fabrics,  although  strictly  they  are  napped  fabrics. 
They  are  made,  as  a  rule,  from  medium-staple  fine  wool  of  good 
felting  quality.  They  are  stock-dyed  and  plain-woven.  Subsequently 
they  are  well  fulled,  napped  (usually  with  a  teasel  gig),  wet-brushed, 
dried,  brushed,  steamed,  sheared,  brushed  again,  sprayed  and  pressed. 
'They  are  used  for  coats,  suits  and  dresses. 


106  Wool,  the  World's  Comforter 

VENETIAN.  A  light,  strong  woolen  fabric  with  a  fine,  diagonal 
twill.  It  is  made  from  various  grades  of  wool  and  shoddy,  with  single 
yarns  in  warp  and  filling.  Sometimes  the  yarns  are  spun  from 
mixed  colored  stock  and  sometimes  the  fabric  is  piece-dyed  in  solid 
colors,  usually  black.  Mixed-colored  Venetians  frequently  are  sold  as 
coverts  (q.  v.),  but  the  genuine  covert  cloth  is  woven  with  2-ply 
yarns.  Venetians  are  fulled  and  slightly  napped,  and  may  be  given 
either  a  clear  or  a  face  finish.  Used  mostly  for  coats  and  skirts. 

WHIPCORD.  A  strong  worsted  fabric  with  round,  diagonal  ribs 
on  the  face.  It  is  made,  as  a  rule,  from  coarse  wool  of  about  %- 
blood,  with  a  2-ply  warp  yarn  which  is  floated  over  a  number  of 
single  filling  yarns,  thus  forming  the  raised  ribs.  Sometimes  these 
warp  yarns  are  of  a  different  color  from  the  foundation  yarns,  and 
the  ribs  consequently  differ  in  color  from  the  body  of  the  cloth. 
Usually,  however,  the  cloth  is  yarn-  or  piece-dyed  in  solid  colors. 
It  is  finished  with  a  polishing  machine,  which  gives  it  a  smooth 
gloss,  and  subsequently  is  sheared  and  pressed.  It  is  a  dress  fabric, 

WOOL  CRASH.  A  light,  coarse,  plain-woven  woolen  fabric  made 
in  imitation  of  linen  crash.  It  is  woven  with  rough,  hard-twisted 
yarns  spun  from  low-grade  wool.  Usually  it  is  stock-dyed  in  mixed 
colors,  but  frequently  it  is  piece-dyed.  It  receives  very  little  fulling, 
and  is  finished  by  shearing  and  pressing.  Wool  crash  is  used  mostly 
for  summer  suits. 

WORSTED.  Any  fabric  made  from  worsted  yarns.  The  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  worsted  yarns  is  that  they  are  spun  from 
combed  wool,  usually  long-staple  wool  and  receive  a  good  deal  of 
drawing  before  they  are  twisted.  Most  worsted  yarns  are  spun  on 
a  cap  frame  or  a  ring  frame  machine,  and  are  smooth,  even  and 
firm.  Sometimes  they  are  spun  on  a  mule  frame,  which  produces 
softer  and  more  spongy  yarns  than  the  cap  or  ring  frames.  Mule- 
spun  worsted  yarns  are  commonly  described  as  French-spun  or  spun 
on  the  French  system.  Worsteds  differ  from  woolens  in  having  a 
clear  finish  and  a  somewhat  harder  and  stiffer  feel.  They  are  not 
fulled,  like  woolens,  but  are  finished  by  being  crabbed,  closely 
sheared,  sprayed  and  pressed.  Sometimes  they  are  very  lightly 


Dictionary  of  Wool  Fabrics  107 

sheared,  so  as  to  leave  a  slight  nap,  and  receive  comparatively  little 
pressing.  Such  fabrics  are  known  as  unfinished  worsteds.  Clay 
worsteds  are  made  from  high-grade  stock  spun  into  rather  soft- 
twisted  yarns  and  woven  with  a  6-harness  twill  weave,  producing  a 
very  distinct  round  rib  effect.  They  receive  a  clear  finish. 

ZIBELINE.  A  thick  woolen  fabric  with  a  long,  straight,  flat- 
tened-down  nap  and  a  high  luster.  It  is  made  with  a  coarse,  heavy 
yarn,  spun  usually  from  a  mixture  of  wool  and  mohair.  Frequently 
it  is  woven  as  a  double  cloth,  with  a  backing  of  worsted  or  cotton. 
It  is  fulled,  scoured,  wet-napped,  brushed,  steamed,  dyed,  brushed 
again  and  pressed.  It  is  used  for  coats. 


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